Brighton and Liverpool played out a 2-2 draw at the Amex Stadium on Sunday in both side’s eighth game of the season.
Brighton controlled most of the first half and they took the lead in the 20th minute through Simon Adingra. The Ivorian caught Alexis Mac Allister sleeping on the ball and sent a curling shot goal-wards that beat Liverpool goalkeeper Allison Becker who was off his line.
Liverpool then had to do what they had been doing for most of this season – coming from behind. Dominik Szoboszlai got the ball on the halfway line and sent a pass to Luis Diaz, who beat his man before feeding the ball to Darwin Nunez.
The Uruguayan switched play to the right into Mohamed Salah’s path and the Egyptian blasted the strike past Brighton’s goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen to draw Liverpool level five minutes from the half-time mark.
Six minutes later, Verbuggen then had a hand in Liverpool’s second goal. His poor pass to Pascal Gross allowed Szoboszlai to put him under pressure, with the midfielder pulling him down in the box.
There was a VAR check for a moment but the penalty stood and Salah calmly converted it to give his team the lead. Verbuggen went the right way but couldn’t reach the ball and the first half ended with Liverpool in the driving seat.
Jurgen Klopp took out Harvey Elliot for Ryan Gravenberch at the restart, and the Dutchman could have extended Liverpool’s lead in the 53rd minute but was denied by the crossbar from close range.
Liverpool in this half enjoyed more possession than they did in the first one. In the next 15 minutes, they created chances to score but Gravenberch and Diaz failed to convert in the 65th and 68th minute respectively.
These misses became costly 10 minutes later when Brighton leveled matters through Lewis Dunk. The Englishman latched onto Solly March’s deadly freekick into the box to put the ball into the back of the net and send the Amex Stadium into a loud roar.
Brighton had a chance to take the lead in the 84th minute but João Pedro’s shot went over the bar.
The draw means Liverpool have moved to third while Brighton remain 6th in the Premier League standings.
