FA Cup 4th Round
American Express Community Stadium, Falmer
Admission: £25.00
Programme: £3.50
Attendance: 31,675
This was very much a bonus game, as I do not usually attend games on Sundays, preferring to keep it a day to enjoy with my partner. But as she supports Liverpool, she very much wanted to make the most of a very rare opportunity to see her club play live. Once tickets finally became available to those with a Brighton purchase history on Friday, I snapped two up.
Throughout most of my life, such a fixture would have seen Liverpool as overwhelming favourites, with Brighton probably happy to just enjoy the day and somehow scrape a draw. All the more so considering that Liverpool are the current holders of the FA Cup. But with the Seagulls continuing a mightily impressive upward trajectory, despite losing manager Graham Potter in August - if anything, replacement Roberto de Zerbi has improved Brighton, with his teams seeming to have much more of a cutting edge - and Liverpool surprisingly really disappointing this season, if anything Brighton would probably considered favourites today. Coming into this game, Brighton were up in sixth place in the table, following nine wins and four draws from 19 league games, three places and two points better off than Liverpool, who had won eight and drawn five of their league games. These two clubs met at the Amex just a fortnight ago, with Brighton claiming the win with surprising ease with a 3-0 final scoreline. It was pleasing to see that both clubs took this cup tie seriously, putting out pretty much their strongest sides, although Brighton chose to field their reserve keeper in Jason Steele
After having to rush down a Wetherspoons breakfast following a 45 minute wait to catch the train to Falmer in order to arrive about an hour ahead of kick-off, rather than ten minutes, this was a highly entertaining game to watch. Both sides had a great chance to open the scoring in the opening stages. First Liverpool, on 4 minutes, when Mo Salah saw his initial low cross cum shot bounce back to him, and his follow up shot from a tight angle was hooked off the line by Lewis Dunk. Then, in the 15th minute, Solly March dribbled the ball into the area before passing low to youngster Evan Ferguson who found himself all alone 8 yards out, but despite even having time to take a touch, which was not particularly good, his shot lacked conviction, and was kicked off the line by Trent Alexander-Arnold. On 25 minutes, Liverpool had another great chance, when Harvey Elliott threaded the ball forward from the centre circle into the path of Salah, who ran clear of the defence, but the eventual shot was screwed wide of the right hand post. But on the half hour mark, Liverpool opened the scoring, this time Salah was the provider, running down the right wing before finding the run of Elliott in the penalty area, and he guided the ball home first time from eight yards out, despite taking a deflection off the keeper en route. But Brighton got back on level terms on 39 minutes when following a corner, the ball was headed out of the penalty area, only for Tariq Lamptey to run onto it and hit a first time shot from 25 yeards which took a deflection off team mate Dunk to divert the ball past Alisson in the Liverpool goal.
After a thoroughly enjoyable first half full of attacking intent, the second half rather settled down with not much being created by either side, and some rather crude tackles going in - arguably, two Liverpool players could easily have been shown red cards, one when Fabinho fouled Ferguson from behind, treading on his shin , and another when last man Ibrahima Konate seemed to pull back recent World Cup winner Alexis MacAllister as he bore down on goal. A replay, which presumably neither club would have wanted, was looking inevitable, until the second minute of added on time, when Brighton snatched a dramatic winner. A free kick was played to the bylne left of goal for Pervis Estupian to control before floating the ball across goal, finding Kaoru Mitoma beyond the back post, and he took a touch, dinked the ball over a challenge by Joe Gomez before poking it past the keeper. It was a lovely finish, although the goal was only confirmed after the dreaded VAR had checked a possible offside. And so the Seagulls sealed their second victory over Liverpool in two weeks, albeit this one was rather more dramatic, to earn a trip to Stoke City in the Fifth Round, and leave Liverpool with very little to play for this season, apart from a very difficult looking Champions League Round of 16 tie against Real Madrid in late February.
Footage of the goals can be viewed by clicking here , Extended highlights of this game can be viewed by clicking here , and full match coverage by clicking here
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