Hull City boss Steve Bruce said the UEFA rule on Champions League games which means his side will have to face Brighton in their FA Cup fifth-round replay at the KC Stadium on Monday night is “ridiculous”.
The Tigers will go head-to-head against Oscar Garcia’s Championship side a week after Yannick Sagbo’s late strike at the Amex Stadium kept the Premier League outfit in the tournament after Leonardo Ulloa had seemingly secured the Seagulls a quarter-final home clash against Sunderland.
The match will be played just two days after Hull’s stunning 4-0 win at Cardiff City on Saturday, while Brighton were also in action as they slipped to a disappointing 2-1 home defeat against Wigan.
And Bruce is frustrated by UEFA’s current rule that top-flight sides cannot play domestic fixtures on the same night as Champions League matches which ruled out the game being played later in the week.
“I find that ridiculous, I have to tell you,” he said. “Surely we could play on the same night as the Champions League, you would have thought.
“I think it is a UEFA rule, which reads nobody plays on the same night as the Champions League. We’ll have to take it as it is and deal with it as it comes.”
Bruce is certain to make numerous changes and hope his fringe men have enough to edge past Brighton on home soil.
Sagbo and Sone Aluko are certain starters because first-choice duo Shane Long and Jelavic are both cup-tied having lined up for West Brom and Everton respectively earlier in the competition.
Hull are 1.80 to win with a -0.5 handicap while Brighton can be backed at 2.13 at +0.50.
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