Wholesale changes by both sides contributed to a largely listless first half. The second half, however, was a feast of both goals and defensive errors, all of which led to a 3-2 victory for Liverpool. Two wonderful strikes by Cody Gapko and a late strike from Luis Diaz eventually saw off a Brighton side who caused a makeshift Liverpool defence plenty of problems.
Arne Slot made eight changes from the side who drew at Arsenal. Janos, who pulled off a world class save with his side one up, amongst them. Liverpool had gone ahead within a minute of the re-start, Gakpo, released by Morton down the left side, hitting a wonder strike from 20 yards. The Dutchmen doubling Liverpool’s lead just after the hour, again giving the goalkeeper little chance with a stinging near post strike.
Two-nil with barely 10 minutes remaining, Liverpool were largely in control. Brighton though, never stopped trying, attacking at every opportunity and Bradley, Quansah and Gomez were struggling at times. Bradley was too often eager to win the ball, whilst Quansah made an error which led to Brighton getting back in the game at 2-1. Adingra took advantage of a loose ball by the centre half and this time Janos was unable to keep the ball out.
Liverpool, having already wasted a glorious chance to kill off the game when attacking with a three-on-one advantage, restored their two goal lead through Diaz. The Colombian, who’d been quite poor for much of the game, twisting and turning in the penalty box, before scoring off the post in the 85th minute.
However, those who’d made the trip to the seaside had a nervous last five minutes, as Brighton again got back into the game. Quansah, scoring an own goal, just as he did in the previous round against West Ham.
Having brought on both Nunez and Salah to see out the game, Slot felt compelled to introduce Konate as five minutes of injury time ticked by. On the eve of Halloween though, any last minute frights were repelled, and the defending champions go into the hat for yet another quarter-final tie in the League Cup.
