Lewis Dunk’s late equaliser earned Brighton a 2-2 Premier League draw with Liverpool at the Amex Stadium.
Winger Simon Adingra took advantage of an error from Alisson in the visitors’ goal to give the Seagulls the lead midway through the first half.
But the game turned on its head before the break, Mohamed Salah slotting home to level after being played in by Harvey Elliott, then firing the Reds in front with a penalty after Pascal Gross had hauled down Dominik Szoboszlai.
Ryan Gravenberch spurned a golden chance to seal the win when he struck the bar with the goal at his mercy, before the final word went to the home side, Dunk volleying in 12 minutes from the end to keep Brighton sixth.
A brilliant contest on the South Coast 🤝 pic.twitter.com/BEYkUCxGYu
— Premier League (@premierleague) October 8, 2023
Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi made six changes from the side that drew in Marseille, in keeping with the trend in the early weeks of their debut season in Europe. Yet in the first half they appeared to pick up where they left off in storming back from two down to draw in the Stade Velodrome on Thursday.
The Seagulls’ first chance came after only four minutes. Dunk got free at the back post from a corner and nodded back across goal, the ball sitting up at a good height for Joao Pedro, whose shot deflected wide.
The opening goal was a calamity of Liverpool’s own making. Alisson played a careless pass to the feet of Alexis Mac Allister, seemingly oblivious to the lurking Adingra. He stole in to nick the ball from the former Brighton player, and with quick thinking took the shot early and rolled it inside the post before goalkeeper Alisson could recover and set himself.
![Brighton and Hove Albion v Liverpool – Premier League – The AMEX](http://image.assets.pressassociation.io/v2/image/production/96bfc1c6982158bd11e70f05ecbb4fc4Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjk2ODY0NDI0/2.74086311.jpg?w=640)
Liverpool were shaken and Brighton began to take a hold of the game. Carlos Baleba exposed the visitors’ porous midfield when he collected inside his own half and drove through the heart of Jurgen Klopp’s side, carrying the ball to the edge of the box before checking back and dragging a left foot effort inches wide.
Liverpool equalised against the run of play after 39 minutes. Dunk gave the ball away to Szoboszlai near halfway and the Hungarian fed it forward to Darwin Nunez. He moved it on to Luis Diaz, whose ball in to Elliott was perfectly weighted for him to set up Salah to slot home.
Salah gave Liverpool the lead from the penalty spot in the 44th minute after Bart Verbruggen playing an awkward pass to Gross that put the midfielder under pressure. He was dispossessed by Szoboszlai and in a desperate attempt to recover the ball he yanked down the Liverpool midfielder, allowing Salah to step up and bag his second from the spot.
![Brighton and Hove Albion v Liverpool – Premier League – The AMEX](http://image.assets.pressassociation.io/v2/image/production/d32f832739d2943bf20212bc3561f07eY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjk2ODY0NDc0/2.74085682.jpg?w=640)
The hosts almost restored parity in the first few minutes of the second half, Evan Ferguson finding Adingra with a reaching pass into the right channel. Adingra darted beyond Andy Robertson and feinted to shoot, instead cutting back inside and hitting a low effort that was well saved by Alisson.
Gravenberch, on as a half-time substitute, wasted a glorious chance to extend the lead when he struck the crossbar with the goal gaping from Szoboszlai’s cross, before the Hungarian turned provider for Diaz who burst into the box and blasted wide.
Karou Mitoma thought he had won Brighton a penalty after 69 minutes, cracking a shot at goal from six yards that appeared to ricochet onto the arm of Joel Matip. There was to be no spot-kick and furious De Zerbi was booked for remonstrating with the fourth official.
![Brighton and Hove Albion v Liverpool – Premier League – The AMEX](http://image.assets.pressassociation.io/v2/image/production/f267465d35ecccc1bcc46458e62a1d00Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjk2ODY0NTA4/2.74087071.jpg?w=640)
Brighton’s equaliser was no more than their assured performance warranted.
Solly March’s whipped free-kick from the left had pace and bend, and as Robertson missed it at the near post it was met first time by Dunk, who thumped home on the volley.
Pedro should have won it when he was left unmarked from 10 yards out, instead the striker leaned back and ballooned a glorious chance over as an entertaining game finished level.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here