Liverpool FC are the big winners of Premier League Saturday. While their title rivals Arsenal and Manchester City lose, the Reds turn the game around against a strong Brighton with a double strike in about two minutes and climb back to the top of the table.
A cross from Gakpo that sailed past friend and foe into the goal (69′) and an inimitable finish from Salah (72′) earned Liverpool another victory against a brave and strong Brighton team that had taken the lead through Kadioglu (14′) and could have scored more at half-time.
Just three days earlier, the two teams had faced each other on the south coast in the League Cup, but compared to LFC’s 3-2 cup victory, both teams lined up with almost completely different starting lineups at the quick reunion at Anfield Road.
And Fabian Hürzeler’s team showed from the start that they didn’t want to hide from the “establishment,” as the former St. Pauli coach put it before the game. 70 percent possession in the opening minutes was clear evidence of that.
For Brighton, there was even more to come in a strong first half.
However, the first big chance of the game belonged to the Reds: Darwin won the ball back strongly at the halfway line, picked up a lot of pace and was stopped by the outstanding visiting keeper Verbruggen, who made a superb parried save with his raised arm (10′). The guests took the lead a little later. Welbeck inadvertently deflected Mitoma’s pass into the path of Kadioglu, who finished past the inside of the post to make it 1-0 (14′). Former Hoffenheim man Rutter could have made it two after some great work by Ayari, but after running past van Dijk, he was denied by the foot of Reds goalkeeper Kelleher (27′).
After one of many good Tsimikas corners had caused some confusion in the Brighton penalty area (31), Konaté’s header saw the Seagulls counter-attack in lightning fashion. Kadioglu could have made school history again, but he clearly missed his shot after fine work from Mitoma (36). After two good free-kick opportunities for Welbeck, the half ended with the feeling that Liverpool could actually live quite well with the 0-1 deficit.
Verbruggen repeatedly prevented the equalizer
After the break, with Gomez coming on for the injured Konaté, however, an increasingly different picture emerged. Liverpool increased the pressure and bottled the visitors up in their own box. Verbruggen twice prevented the equalizer. First, he parried Mac Allister’s header reflexively (53rd), then he did not let Salah, who was heavily involved in the penalty area by Darwin, outwit him with an attempted lob (56th). In between, van Dijk had let out a 1-1 after outstanding work by Alexander-Arnold (55). In short, the equalizer was in the air.
Gakpo, who had already scored twice against Brighton during the week, made sure that it finally fell. The high ball in the direction of the penalty area should have been more of a pass. But it sailed past friend and foe into the far corner (69). A little more than two minutes later, Salah got the better of Estupinan, against whom he had not had much success before, and shot the ball inimitably into the top left corner to make it 2-1 (72). Brighton’s efforts to equalize in the final phase were in vain.
Liverpool climbed back to the top of the Premier League thanks to Manchester City’s first league defeat in Bournemouth and now have a two-point lead over the serial champions. Arsenal, who fell back to fourth place behind Nottingham Forest after losing 1-0 at Newcastle, are already seven points behind. The Reds seem to be well prepared for the upcoming tasks against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League and against Aston Villa in the league on Saturday.