WOLVERHAMPTON, England :Brighton & Hove Albion claimed a 2-0 win at Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League on Saturday thanks to goals from Danny Welbeck and substitute Brajan Gruda, keeping them within touching distance of qualifying for European football.
Brighton moved up one place to ninth on 55 points, level with eighth-placed Brentford.
Should Manchester City defeat Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final this month, an eighth-place finish in the Premier League would secure qualification for the Conference League.
Wolves began well at Molineux but forward Goncalo Guedes, making his first league start since February, was unable to make the most of the two half-chances in the opening 10 minutes.
The visitors thought they had taken the lead in the 23rd minute through a Welbeck volley, but the strike was disallowed after winger Yankuba Minteh was adjudged to have interfered with play while being in an offside position.
Moments later, Brighton were awarded a penalty for a foul by Matheus Cunha on Mats Wieffer, and Welbeck stepped up to put the ball in the net and take his tally of league goals this season up to 10.
Wolves piled on the pressure in a desperate search for the equaliser, with Brighton keeper Bart Verbruggen saving Cunha’s long-range shot before palming a dangerous cross away from Jorgen Strand Larsen.
The game swung from end to end in the last 30 minutes and Brighton’s forwards made frequent forays into Wolves’ final third, but were often let down by their decision-making.
One of Brighton’s attacks finally worked out in the 85th minute, however, as German Gruda scored his first goal for the south-coast club, delicately dinking the ball over onrushing keeper Jose Sa after being played in by Simon Adingra.
For Wolves, the loss was another step backwards after last week’s 1-0 defeat by Manchester City ended a run of six successive league victories.
Vitor Pereira’s side dropped to 14th in the table.
