LAST UPDATE | 29 Jan 2023
LIVERPOOL SUFFERED ANOTHER horror show on England’s south coast as Kaoru Mitoma’s stunning stoppage-time goal saw the holders dumped out of the FA Cup 2-1 at Brighton.
But the Seagulls’ win was marred by the sight of Evan Ferguson requiring help to leave the pitch after a dreadful tackle from behind by Fabinho forced the Ireland international off for the final stages.
The 18-year-old has come to the fore at club level and is also now viewed as a serious contender to start for his country when Stephen Kenny’s side begin their Euro 2024 qualification against France on 27 March.
The extent of the injury could now determine whether that is a possibility, with the Brazil international only shown a yellow card for the brutal challenge which resulted in Ferguson leaving the stadium on crutches.
“We are sorry for him (Ferguson),” the Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi told beIN Sports. “The injury, we don’t know yet, but we will see in the next days and we hope for him and for the club that it will not be so important an injury.
“I think Fabinho is a quality player. It can happen on the pitch, these accidents.”
For Liverpool, back at the scene of the 3-0 thumping a fortnight ago which Jurgen Klopp described as the worst of his managerial career, looked destined for at least a replay after Lewis Dunk’s lucky strike cancelled out Harvey Elliott’s opener.
But Japan star Mitoma produced a fabulous piece of improvisation to control the ball and then volley a dramatic winner to leave Klopp wincing again.
Brighton, as expected, were without wantaway midfielder Moises Caicedo, who went public with his desire to leave after Arsenal had a £60million bid turned down.
They shrugged off his absence in style, although there was certainly a Caicedo-shaped hole in Brighton’s midfield as Liverpool carved through it early on.
Naby Keita sent Mohamed Salah racing clear down the right and after his initial shot was saved by goalkeeper Jason Steele, Adam Webster cleared the rebound off the line.
Ten minutes later Brighton also had an effort blocked on the line when Solly March’s low cross was met by Ferguson six yards out, with Trent Alexander-Arnold on hand to clear from under the crossbar.
Then Salah was put through again, this time by Elliott’s cute pass, but he dragged his shot across goal and wide.
However, the roles were reversed to greater effect moments later when Salah played in Elliott, who swept the ball past Steele and into the net.
Brighton equalised in the 39th minute when Tariq Lamptey’s fierce drive was diverted past the wrong-footed Alisson by the boot of Dunk. The Seagulls captain wheeled away in celebration as if he had known exactly what he was doing, but his sheepish grin told a different story.
Dunk’s next piece of skill was deliberate, though, an audacious Cristiano Ronaldo-style free-kick which floated just wide with Alisson scampering back nervously.
Brighton were desperately unlucky not to go ahead with 20 minutes remaining after Mitoma bent in an inviting low cross with the outside of his right boot.
It was met in front of goal by March, whose prod forward hit Alisson, rebounded back off the winger and spun narrowly wide.
Instead, two minutes into stoppage time, Mitoma struck at the far post, bamboozling Joe Gomez as he controlled Pervis Estupinan’s cross before rifling in the winner.
Brighton deserved the win , how Fabinho stayed on the pitch after the foul on young Ferguson is mind boggling . And Conate was on a yellow and fouled a Brighton player with a push on the back , he should have seen red too . TAA got a bashing all day long by the Japanese lad , the lad is just not able to defend .
@Tricksy: if only Celtic would look to Japan and Korea for quality players ;)
Terrible challenge from Fabinho. Should have been red. And he knew it himself. Hope Ferguson’s ok
Serious questions to be asked of VAR after that debacle .Disgraceful Fabinho stayed on the pitch he was expecting to see red. Robertson could easily have went too…as could have Konate. None could have any complaints
@John Delaney: ….on those 2 tackles late on….if that’s sport, we’re fkdd!!
Another big L for the best team ever to do it lol
@Aidy McBride: the greatest team in league history to ever win 1 league in 33 years. Get your facts right please.
@Aidy McBride: good man aidy another comment from the man no one takes seriously
@Aidy McBride: Yes, Liverpool are the most successful English team ever. You are correct to mention this : )
@Paul Jennings: but you took the time to rage, be offended and then counter my comment. So predictable lol
@Liam P Dunne: go easy on them Liam, they are a temperamental bunch
@Liam P Dunne: or 5 titles in 40 years or 11 in fifty years. United won their 7th title in 1967 and Liverpool won their 7th in 1966. So in all that time ye have won 1 title more than us. Liverpools last league 2020, united last league title 2013. 10 years tick tock.
@Aidy McBride:
@Denis Ryan: Us vs Them – schoolboy pïssing contest bs…Zzzz..
A terrible season by our standards. No invention, and we are devolving. Signings are important, but Klopp doesn’t have an answer. Quite worrying.
Brighton were good for it. Mitoma is very dangerous, he’ll surely get picked up by a bigger club.
@Finn Faulkner: Becoming the norm. We are way off it. Klopp era looks doomed.
Liverpool are still in contention for the relegation places so not is all lost ha ha.
Horrific tackle. He should have seen red for it. There should be retrospective action allowed in cases like that. Wish Evan a speedy recovery
@Declan Moran: agree it was a horrific tackle Declan and should have been red. I think as the ref dealt with the incident by issuing a yellow card. Can it be upgraded to red?
It was no coincidence that we had two clean sheets for the last two games without Trent playing, he just is not a defender and it’s a major flaw on Klopps behalf that he keeps insisting on playing him at full back. The chickens have come home to roost with our aging midfield and no investment from FSG in this department that been crying out for it for a couple of seasons even now with our struggles we went and bought Gakpo, fine but he wasn’t an urgent signing and ignored our obvious deficiencies
@Michael McGrath: yes Trent is a great crosser and all that yada yada but has a lot of glaring deficiencies in his defensive game.
Half the male population of Ireland crying into their pints tonight
Fabiano; he’s not that type of player….
Brighton should write to the FA to see if they can play Liverpool every week and Mitoma probably dreams of playing againt TAA every week
Allez allez allez
They Should really try playing 3-5-2. Give Trent less defensive responsibility.
@Emmet Heneghan: agreed. I wonder is Klopp reluctant to do that because if another CB gets injured there’s not a lot left. Williams just had his loan cancelled I think? Either way, a change in shape is badly needed
@Emmet Heneghan: just shouldn’t play trent
@Michael Mullins: Been saying it for ages we have more cover at centre half than we do at full back though. Don’t know why we are selling Phillips he’s a far better and braver defender than Gomez
Fecking hell Liverpool are shockin’ at the moment. Defo nothing more than a mid-table club this year.
I really hate football at the moment. Liverpool are just awful. It’s obvious that the last 4 seasons have taken their toll. So many players have lost form at the same time. The same 11-18 players have had to be on it for every single game since 2018 in order to be anywhere near City. The rebuild could take a while, unfortunately. Unless some serious petro-dollars suddenly get invested in to the club, as much as it pains me to think about it.
@Eoin McCarthy: so you hate football cos “your team” aren’t winning anymore? What exactly would you like for your 6th birthday lad
@Eoghan Ryan: Ever heard of tongue in cheek……lad? I’ll take a Lego set though, if you’re buying.
Should be arrested and charged with assault never mind the cards.
This is reminding me of period before Rodgers getting boot…very worrying.
Quadrapool ? Where did it all go wrong