Report & Highlights: Sarr tears Brighton apart – again

Summary:

• Club record signing Strand Larsen starts for Palace for debut.
• Fellow debutant Guessand begins on the bench, where Kamada returns to squad.
• 5: Frenetic start sees Strand Larsen threaten with physicality early on.
• 19: Dunk heads big opportunity wide for the hosts.
• 31: Lacroix and Richards make important intervention to deny Kostoulas.
• 43: Sarr shoots wide at the near post after slide-rule pass from Muñoz.
• 45: A half of plenty of threat, but few clear chances, ends goalless.
• HT: Brighton 0-0 Palace
• 56: Guessand comes on for Palace debut off the bench.
• 61 – GOAL: Guessand slips in Sarr, who hammers the opener past Verbruggen.
• 65: Henderson makes excellent save with his boot to deny Kostoulas one-on-one.
• 73: Strand Larsen’s fierce effort is stopped by Verbruggen at the near post.
• 76: Kamada makes eagerly-awaited return to action.
• 90: Palace defend superbly to retain their lead.
• 90+4: Strand Larsen is denied a debut-day goal after crisp low shot is saved.
• FT: Brighton 0-1 Palace

Heading into the renewal of rivalries with Brighton, club-record signing Strand Larsen was given his Palace debut from the start, hoping to cap a milestone week which saw him pen a four-and-a-half year contract with the club on Monday and celebrate his 26th birthday on Friday.

There was one other change to the team that drew 1-1 at Nottingham Forest, with Adam Wharton returning from suspension to start – whilst on the bench, Evann Guessand was also a potential debutant and Daichi Kamada – who injured his hamstring during 14th December’s match against Manchester City – was also back in the squad.

As one might expect from the occasion, it was a raucous atmosphere which greeted both sets of players out of the Amex Stadium tunnel – and that set the game up perfectly for a frantic start, played at high pace and high intensity.

Both teams threatened inside the opening five minutes, with Strand Larsen linking up well with the players around him, providing plenty of energy and pressing high up the pitch, earning himself a loud chant from the away end in front of him two minutes in.

At the other end, Kaoru Mitoma – Brighton’s best outlet in the first-half – won the hosts an early corner, which led to Lewis Dunk twice threatening early on, only for Maxence Lacroix and Jefferson Lerma to mop up the danger.

The opening period saw the kind of committed tackling and high adrenaline you might expect from the fixture, but it was from set-pieces where both teams really posed the most danger.

Palace in particular provided most of that threat, Lerma, Lacroix and Strand Larsen all winning plenty of headers without the ball falling to a golden shirt.

That being said, the clearest chance of the opening quarter did go Brighton’s way – but thankfully Dunk, with a free header from Pascal Gross’ free-kick delivery, nodded wide from six yards out.

Palace were growing into the contest, but were forced to remain alert, with Lacroix making one particularly important block on his midriff after a first-time strike by Maxim De Cuyper just inside the box.

The Eagles finished the first 45 the stronger of the two sides, as Brighton struggled to clear their lines from a series of Chris Richards long throws – one such clearance ricocheted off Strand Larsen and whistled just wide.

There was to be one final presentable chance for Palace as Daniel Muñoz – heavily involved in the Eagles’ build-up play – slipped a first-time pass between two defenders, allowing Sarr to race into the box. But from a tight angle, the Senegal forward, under pressure from a covering defender, sliced an effort wide of the near post.

Goalless at the break, but not for the wont of trying – but it took the introduction of another Palace debutant, Guessand, on 56 minutes to break the deadlock just after the hour mark.

Within five minutes of entering the pitch, the Ivory Coast international seized onto a loose Brighton headers in midfield, drove forwards and – lifting his head – spotted Sarr making a run from the right, outside-to-in, straight through the heart of the Brighton defence.

Guessand duly split the defence with a low pass which invited Sarr, running at full pelt, to take two touches into the area and – head up – hammer the ball high past the advancing Bart Verbruggen with his left foot, his third goal in two visits to the Amex Stadium as a Crystal Palace player.

Just two minutes later, another crucial moment in the contest – and Palace prevailed again. A ball round the corner from Mitoma put Charalampos Kostoulas in on goal but Dean Henderson raced off his line to narrow the angle – and, in front of the roaring away end, duly kick the effort away.

The first goal was always likely to set the tone in a tight game, and Henderson’s save was important – but Palace, to their credit, defended with great organisation and commitment, and were at no point penned in by their increasingly desperate hosts.

Indeed, it was a closing period which – for all of Brighton’s pressing – saw Palace enjoy the better chances, Strand Larsen denied a debut-day goal after seeing his fierce effort from a tight angle beaten away by Verbruggen at the near post.

To add to the positives, Kamada returned from the bench with 15 minutes to go, putting himself into several strong tackles to help shore up the defence.

As space opened up in injury time, Strand Larsen was denied again, his low placed strike kept out by the Brighton ‘keeper after a clever give-and-go-with Muñoz.

But with Palace in such resilient form defensively, the hosts never truly looked like equalising – and the Eagles were able to celebrate a first win of 2026, and back-to-back away wins at the Amex Stadium, with special scenes at the full-time whistle.

Brighton: Verbruggen (GK), Kadioglu, Dunk, Boscagli, De Cuyper (Welbeck, 71), Howell (Minteh, 71), Baleba (Gomez, 71), Gross, Rutter (O'Riley, 82), Kostoulas (Hinshelwood, 82), Mitoma.

Subs: Steele (GK), Igor Julio, Veltman, Milner.

Palace: Henderson (GK), Richards, Lacroix, Lerma, Muñoz, Wharton, Hughes (Kamada, 74), Mitchell, Sarr (Johnson, 87), Strand Larsen, Pino (Guessand, 56).

Subs: Benítez (GK), Clyne, Riad, Canvot, Sosa, Uche.

As It Happened