Liverpool produced their strongest performance of the season, defeating Brighton comfortably and advancing to the fifth round of the FA Cup.
Goals from Curtis Jones, Dominik Szoboszlai and Mohamed Salah helped the Reds beat the Seagulls in one of Arne Slott’s best performances of the season.
It is the third time this season that Liverpool have embarked on a run to win two consecutive domestic games, hoping to salvage their season with a cup win.
Liverpool, who started the match fairly late in the evening, started to improve as the first half progressed and thought they had taken the lead when Kodi Gakpo headed in Dominik Szoboszlai’s powerful free kick.
These celebrations did not last long as an offside flag was late overridden. But the disappointment lasted for all of five minutes, when Jones, substituted as right-back, fired home from close range after receiving a perfect low cross from Milos Kerkes.
Liverpool’s Curtis Jones gives his team the lead against Brighton
Brighton started the second half aggressively and needed a great save from Alisson to deny Lewis Dunk an equaliser. He was then rewarded when his team doubled the lead.
It came from the best move of the match as Kerkes switched play onto Salah. The Egyptian perfectly buffered the ball into Szoboszlai’s run and the Liverpool sensation doubled his tally with a powerful finish.
Dominik Szoboszlai doubles Liverpool’s lead
Brighton’s chances of a comeback quickly disappeared when Salah was brought down by Pascal Gross inside the area, and the resulting penalty was taken by the forward to end the game.
Mohamed Salah returns to the scoresheet and helps Liverpool beat Brighton
The Reds will wait until Monday’s draw to find out who they will face in the fifth round, while Brighton’s poor run of form continues with the Seagulls currently without a win in their last five games.
Slot: Liverpool proved we are as good as last season
Liverpool manager Arne Slott told TNT Sports after the game:
“When we played here this season, there were many times when we couldn’t press because of the opponent’s style of play.
Mohamed Salah was one of several Liverpool players to say they had their best performance against Brighton.
“As I said before the game, there are two teams today with similar styles. As you saw in our second goal, there are two teams that try to take the ball out from behind and one that wants to press high.”
“The modern Premier League is more about a direct style of play and set-pieces, rather than getting the ball out from the back. But today we played against a team that tries to get the ball out from the back, and I think we showed that off the ball we’re still as good as last season.”
“But the style of play of our opponents has changed a lot throughout the league, but especially against us.”
Shoboshlai: I want to write my own story
Dominik Szoboszlai told TNT Sports after the 3-0 win against Brighton:
“I just want to keep going and score as many goals as I can.
“I’m not going to play Steven Gerrard’s season. He was a legend at the club but I’m trying to write my own story.
“I want to do my best every game. I hope I can continue until the end.”
‘Brighton can’t feel sorry for themselves’
Brighton manager Fabian Hürzeler said in an interview with BBC Sport:
“We started the game well, controlled the ball and they scored, which changed the game a little bit. The goals came out of nowhere. We had two big chances in the first half, but we didn’t capitalize on them. Liverpool were more effective.”
“In the second half we had a big chance with Luiz and it was the same situation two or three minutes after they scored.
“That was the difference. They took advantage of their moments and we didn’t do it the way they did. In the end it was a disappointing result because the fans were great today and supported us for 90 minutes and they should have deserved more.”
“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves and we can’t complain about moments like this. It’s up to us and I to take responsibility and strive for it. We have to do the small steps correctly, and then we can take the big steps.”
