Brighton are looking to claim their first win of the 2023/24 Europa League campaign as they face Ajax on Thursday night.
Brighton currently sit bottom of Group B with one loss and one draw from their first two games of the campaign.
The Seagulls began with a disappointing 2-3 loss at home to AEK Athens before claiming a decent point away in Marseille with a 2-2 draw.
The draw in Marseille was an impressive display of heart and persistence given they found themselves 2-0 down after a very poor first half showing before composing themselves at half-time and subsequently delivering a much-improved second half performance to secure what could be a valuable point.
After a strong start to the season Brighton have been wobbling somewhat and many people are speculating as to whether teams have "found out" Roberto De Zebra's side given they've fallen to a couple of pretty uncharacteristic defeats.
They're coming into this game in poor form one the whole having failed to win any of their last five games in all competitions, the most recent of which was a 2-1 loss away at Manchester City.
In fairness to Brighton they've had a tough run of games in that five match period and having drawn 2-2 against Liverpool before performing admirably at the Etihad at the weekend, despite ultimately losing the game, they can feel positive ahead of what is a huge game for them in this competition.
If Brighton want to secure a place in the knockout rounds then this game is, realistically, a must-win for De Zerbi and co and given the circumstances surrounding both teams they should really fancy themselves to win this one.
Ajax currently sit 3rd in Europa League Group B with two draws from their first two games of the campaign.
The Dutch side began proceedings with a thrilling 3-3 draw against Marseille before claiming another point in a 1-1 draw in Greece against AEK Athens.
This has been a miserable, and so far unprecedented, season for Ajax as the European giants find themselves 17th in the league table having won just one league game so far.
Ajax sitting in the relegation zone in October is unheard of in Dutch football and the shocking nature of their start has unsurprisingly led to manager Maurice Steijn losing his job this week.
Steijn's assistant, Hedwiges Maduro, will now take charge on a caretaker basis and he has the mother of all jobs on his hands attempting to turn around what has been a car crash of a start to the season. How he will fare is almost impossible to predict but if he wins his first game in charge here he'll already have Ajax's best win of the campaign.
For our Brighton vs. Ajax prediction, we're going for a 3-2 win for the home side.
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