LIVERPOOL 3 VS 1 BRIGHTON
Liverpool – Jones 42’, Szoboszlai 56’, Salah 68’ (pen)
Pre-Match
It’s a weekend FA Cup game to hopefully sweeten our Valentine’s Days. Liverpool take on Brighton and Hove Albion in a fourth round match at Anfield. Federico Chiesa and Curtis Jones both start while youngster Rio Ngumoha is on the bench. Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk both make the cut for this FA Cup match. Arne Slot has chosen a strong squad for this game.
First Half
This game started off strong, with Florian Wirtz nearly scoring in the
opening few minutes. Salah floated a ball over top, but the wind and a Brighton defender did enough to get in the way. Despite that, Brighton also looks prepared to attack, and had a little too much freedom to pass it around in the midfield in the early stages of the game.
On the other end, about 12 minutes in, Brighton get the first shot on target of the match. Ferdi Kadioglu tries his luck, and thankfully it’s a little too on target, in that it went straight into Alisson’s arms.
Milos Kerkez scores, thanks to a great pass from van Dijk, but he’s judged offside, and so the goal is disallowed. It was nice work there from the Reds though — especially that pass from van Dijk.
Wirtz earns a free kick in a good position, but Salah’s delivery is off and the opportunity goes to waste. Moments later, they nearly capitalize on a Brighton mistake when they tried to play it out from the back, but it’s not quite successful.
For the second time, Liverpool have a goal disallowed for offside. This time it’s Cody Gakpo who believes he slotted home on a pass from Dominik Szoboszlai, but the flag goes up to dampen his celebration.
Since about the 20th minute, it has been all Liverpool here, after a good start from the visitors. It has yet to produce a goal, but the Reds look lively and like they came to play. Brighton have managed three bookings so far in this half, and might find themselves in trouble soon.
It’s Curtis Jones who breaks the deadlock near the end of normal time in the first half.
Kerkez crossed to Jones, who bangs it home for the first goal of the night. It feels like there’s a collective sigh of relief that they scored one before losing the momentum at halftime.
Brighton come very, very close to evening the score on a corner. The close range header goes over the bar. Then right after that, Jones gets wrongfooted and allows Diego Gomez to get shot off. Thankfully Alisson made the save. What a wild five minutes.
Second Half
Alisson starts the half off by making a big save to deny Brighton a tap-in goal.
No worries, though, because soon it’s Szoboszlai who scores the next goal. Gakpo sends in a ball to Salah, who slides it into Szoboszlai’s path. He slams it into the back of the net to make it 2-0 to the good guys. Salah tries to get in on the action a few minutes later, but his attempt is blocked by the goalkeeper.
At 65’, Salah is brought down in the box and awarded a penalty. Of course, the Egyptian takes it and makes no mistake. Liverpool lead 3-0.
Wirtz is the first Liverpool player to come off at about 70’ in, with the game well in hand. He’s replaced by Joe Gomez and gets a standing ovation from the Kop for his efforts.
Hugo Ekitike and Rio Ngumoha are on next for Chiesa and Salah.
The third and most insulting offside Liverpool goal of the night is called against Ngumoha. That should be illegal. I wish to start a petition.
Jones and Gakpo go off at 89’ to be replaced by Trey Nyoni and Calvin Ramsay.
Alisson makes another good save at the death, and the Liverpool deal with two consecutive corners from Brighton.
Final Thoughts
Off to the quarterfinals go Liverpool!
