Brighton 2-2 Liverpool (Adingra 20′, Dunk 78′ | Salah 40′, pen 45′)
A first-half brace for Mohamed Salah was cancelled out by a poacher’s finish from Lewis Dunk, as Brighton and Liverpool emerged from an end-to-end encounter with a point each.
Both sides came into Sunday’s match looking to bounce back from gutting defeats last weekend, the Seagulls having been battered 6-1 by Aston Villa while a last-gasp Joel Matip own goal snatched a point away from the Reds in their VAR controversy-ridden game against Tottenham.
After a string of early corners for the hosts and plenty of action in the Reds’ penalty area, it was Brighton who broke the deadlock 20 minutes in.
Quick thinking and quick feet from Seagulls winger Simon Adingra showed quick thinking and quick feet to latch on to a loose Virgil van Dijk pass, bursting forward and slotting the ball past a helpless Alisson.
Roberto De Zerbi’s men kept the pressure on, with Kaoru Mitoma racking up the attempts and young Carlos Baleba bossing the midfield on his full Premier League debut.
But despite the hosts having fashioned the majority of the chances in the first half of this encounter, a quickfire double from Salah turned the tie on its head and left Brighton 2-1 down at the interval.
First, a loss of possession just inside the Seagulls’ half set Liverpool’s attack loose, Luis Diaz laying the ball off to Darwin Nunez on the edge of the box before Harvey Elliot let the Uruguayan’s pass glide by him and onto the boot of Salah, who finished the move to score on the road for the first time this season.
And just minutes later, the Egyptian winger stepped up to the penalty spot to double his tally after Dominik Szoboszlai was yanked down in the box by Pascal Gross.
Eager to avenge their lost lead, the hosts came out firing early after the break, their biggest chance coming when Adingra forced Alisson into a crucial save, while half-time substitute Ryan Gravenberch crashed an effort of his own against the Brighton bar.
The Seagulls had a penalty shout of their own denied, much to the chagrin of their manager, and it looked increasingly likely that Liverpool would grind out a win until a Solly March free-kick found its way past several red shirts, with Dunk there to hammer it home from mere yards out and draw his side level again.
Brighton could even have regained the lead soon after their equaliser, when Joao Pedro blazed a golden chance over the bar.
But in the end, a point apiece felt like the fairest of results, leaving Jurgen Klopp’s side third in the table with Brighton up to fifth.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/LWDHYnC
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