This could prove to be a difficult game for Brighton (16th) as they are facing reigning champions Liverpool (2nd) at the AMEX stadium. The Seagulls have never won a top-flight home game against The Reds, and their last win against the Merseyside club came in the FA Cup, in 1984. However, the visitors are winless in their last three league away games and are coming off a poor performance against Atalanta in the Champions League. Mathias Kamfjord will be taking you through the action as it happens.
Line-ups!
- Mac Allister, Andone and Izquierdo are missing because of injuries, while Lamptey is suspended after picking up a red card against Aston Villa
- Leonardo Trossard and former Liverpool player Adam Lallana were doubts before the game and are benched today
- Danny Welbeck starts and will be looking to score in consecutive league appearances for the first time in almost five years (January 2016). He’s only scored once in 16 games against The Reds
- Liverpool have made six changes from the meeting with Atalanta
- Gomez and van Dijk are of course out with long-term injuries – in addition Alexander-Arnold, Keita, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Thiago and Shaqiri are missing as well. However, Jordan Henderson is back in the squad after sustaining an injury on international duty
- Sadio Mane somewhat surprisingly on the bench today, while Mohamed Salah starts his first league game after being infected with covid-19
- Nathaniel Phillips makes his 3rd first-team appearance for the club
- Takumi Minamino makes his first league start of the season
- Alisson Becker is set to make his 100th appearance for Liverpool in goal today
A minute applause for the sad passing of football-legend Diego Armando Maradona
Kick-off!
Peep! Stuart Attwell blows his whistle for kick-off!
2′ Diogo Jota gets played through early here, tries to progress the ball to Salah in a great position but the pass gets intercepted.
3′ A fantastic through-ball gets played from Fabinho to Salah but the Egyptian’s half-volley shot goes wide. Great chance for the visitors.
7′ Incredible how many times Liverpool have got behind Brighton’s defence so far. Jota’s eventual strike gets deflected to a corner after a great attacking play.
10′ What a chance! Aaron Connolly finds a big hole in the Liverpool defence, gets one-on-one with Alisson but the shot goes wide. The hosts strike back with their first chance of the game.
It has been an intriguing start to this game. End-to-end with good chances from both sides and great attacking football overall.
19′ Penalty! Aaron Connolly goes down after a sloppy tackle from youngster Neco Williams. Brighton’s top scorer Neal Maupay will take it.
20′ Missed! He hits it wide of the right post! Poor penalty!
22′ Maupay goes off with an injury. Presumably not just out of embarrassment. Hard to tell what happened to him.
25′ Trossard is still warming up after Maupay withdrew. Does take some time this.
Not much has happened since the penalty-miss. Both teams have cancelled each other out, but it’s Liverpool that have carried the ball for the most part.
33′ Trossard gets played through the left, cuts inside but the shot goes wide. Alisson seem to have good control on that effort.
34′ Mohamed Salah gets played through from Jota after a long goal kick, thereafter scores but VAR overturns it for offside. Very, very, very marginal.
38′ Welbeck shoots wide of Alisson’s posts. Sloppy shot from the former Manchester United and Arsenal player.
42′ Minamino attempts a shot just outside the penalty area with the outside of his right foot, but it lands straight in Mathew Ryan’s palms.
Two minutes added time has been shown on the by the fourth official.
45+1 Joel Veltman receives the first yellow card of the game after stamping on Roberto Firmino’s foot. Not far away from being shown a different colour there.
Half-time!
PEEP! The referee blows his whistle for half-time! Entertaining half thus far. Both teams have shown great attacking capabilities and taking considerable risks with their defensive lines. Connolly and Salah have probably been the most active in attack for the respective sides. However, Maupay is probably still disappointed with the penalty-miss he had early on. Jurgen Klopp complained as always about the 12.30 pm kick-off at the press conference and Liverpool’s tiredness is obvious. They are not at their best and will look to improve in the second-half.
Liverpool’s Premier League games have seen a league-high 23 goals in the first half this season. This match’s not following the footsteps of that trend.
Second-half begins!
James Milner has moved to right-back after Williams got substituted for Henderson.
50′ Georginio Wijnaldum plays through Jota but the latter’s shot goes wide-right.
54′ Welbeck goes on a great run, dribbles past Fabinho twice but his attempt goes right at Allison.
60′ GOAL!! Brighton 0-1 Liverpool!
DIOGO JOTA! After an interchange between Salah and Jota the Portuguese dribbles past two defenders and finds the bottom right corner with a great finish. That is his eighth goal in eighth games in all competitions for the Reds. The visitors are one-up on the Seagulls. Lallana is changing clothes to come in against his former employer after that goal.
Connolly perhaps surprisingly substituted off after an energetic game from the Irishman.
Sad for Lallana. Had to come off 46 minutes in Brighton’s previous Premier League game against Villa as well.
72′ Welbeck is down after a headbutt with Phillips. The referee blows for a free-kick. Milner is also down holding his hamstring. Looks like the veteran must be substituted.
75′ Solly March’s free-kick gets easily saved by Liverpool’s Brazilian in goal.
77′ This has been an injury-fest. Phillips down now as well. You must understand the Premier League manager’s frustration about the tight match fixtures.
Phillips seems fine and continues the game after treatment.
80′ March hits a cross from left but Robertson gets on the end of it. Close that the Scotland-captain’s clearance went in his own net.
83′ Another goal ruled off for Liverpool! Robertson hits a great freekick in to Mane who heads it in. However, the VAR-room says the Senegalese was in an offside position. The game is not over yet. Incredible.
90+1′ VAR looking at a possible penalty here for Brighton. The referee runs to look at the screen.
90+2′ Penalty! Robertson hits Welbeck and the referee points to the spot! Looked like the correct decision.
90+3′ GOAL!! Brighton 1-1 Liverpool!
PASCAL GOAL! He hits it straight down the middle and the sides are level!
90+7′ Alireza Jahanbakhsh strikes but it gets deflected and a corner is given.
Full-time! Brighton 1-1 Liverpool
Peep Peep! And the referee blows for full-time. This game will probably be talked about a lot afterwards after VAR being in the centre of attention once again. Liverpool fans are in all likelihood furious after all the overturned decisions. Two goals overturned for offside and one penalty given against them must leave a sour taste in the team’s and supporters’ mouths. Overall a quite competitive game. Brighton were decent but Liverpool not at their best, and perhaps that is due to a busy fixture list.
Where do they go from here?
Brighton have not climbed further up the table after they received a point from today’s game. They have often been unlucky in league games this season but got a deserved point today. However, they will probably look to improve their home-form after being winless in their last nine games. Worrying that Lallana and top scorer Maupay went off injured today, but their fixture list is luckily kinder in the upcoming weeks.
Liverpool are temporarily top of the table, but they will probably be disappointed with that result and performance. Did not look themselves today, and with the tightness of the table – a draw was not an ideal outcome. They are now winless in their last four away games and facing a tense match programme in the near future. This title-race looks to be a close one.
Thanks for following. Bye-bye.
