Football

Brighton vs Liverpool player ratings: Honours even at the Amex

October 8, 2023 4:03 pm
Brighton vs Liverpool player ratings: Honours even at the Amex
Photo by Icon sport

  • Liverpool and Brighton play out a thrilling 2-2 draw at the Amex Stadium.
  • A Mo Salah double at the end of the first half cancelled out Adingra’s opener before Lewis Dunk levelled the match late on.
  • Ryan Gravenberch had a golden chance to make it 3-1 earlier in the second half while Joao Pedro could have made it 3-2 in the dying minutes.

Brighton player ratings:

Bart Verbruggen 5/10 –  Made a mess of things trying to play out the back which resulted in the Liverpool penalty at the end of the first half.

Joel Veltman 6/10 – Did okay defensively against Diaz but was sloppy at times in the build up.

Lewis Dunk 7/10 – Levelled the game at 2-2 with a simple side-footed finish and defended pretty well against Nunez.

Igor 6/10 – Was forced off with an injury but all things considered, he had a solid full debut.

Solly March 6/10 – Put in the ball for Dunk’s equaliser but didn’t look completely comfortable as a left back.

Pascal Gross 4/10 – Lost the ball and then dragged Szoboszlai down which gave Liverpool a penalty at the end of the first half.

Carlos Baleba 7/10 – Was the standout player in the first half with his driving runs through midfield.

Kaoru Mitoma 6/10 – Grew more into the game late on but Alexander-Arnold dealt with him well.

Joao Pedro 7/10 – Should have won the game for Brighton with score at 2-2 but was a danger throughout.

Simon Adingra 8/10 – Comfortably won his individual battle against Robertson and gave the Seagulls the lead with a nice finish.

Evan Ferguson 5/10 – Couldn’t really get into the game and was taken off in the second half.

Substitutes

Danny Welbeck 6/10 – Didn’t do much better than Ferguson but did stretch the Liverpool defence at times.

Jan Paul van Hecke 6/10 – Slotted into the defence comfortably.

Ansu Fati N/A

Liverpool player ratings:

Alisson 6/10 – Was caught sleeping for the Brighton opener but made some good saves afterwards to make up for it.

Trent Alexander-Arnold 7/10 – Dealt with Mitoma really well and was unlucky to be taken off.

Virgil van Dijk 5/10 – His lazy pass allowed Adingra to score and he never recovered.

Joel Matip 6/10 – Brought the ball out from the defence nicely but struggled against Pedro.

Andy Robertson 4/10 – Had a shocker against Adingra – didn’t know whether to stick or twist and was made to look foolish.

Alexis Mac Allister 4/10 – Lost the ball on countless occasions and never looked comfortable. A concern for Jurgen Klopp.

Dominik Szoboszlai 7/10 – Everything positive Liverpool did went through the Hungarian.

Harvey Elliott 6/10 – A nice dummy to allow Salah the time and space to equalise but wasn’t really in the game other than that.

Mo Salah 8/10 – Two emphatic finishes to give Liverpool the lead – he couldn’t have done much more as the Reds tried to bounce back from last weekend’s defeat.

Darwin Nunez 7/10 – Linked up play nicely when the Liverpool midfield actually bothered to play it into him. Deserved better service.

Luis Diaz 6/10 – A lot of huffing and puffing without any real quality.

Substitutes

Ryan Gravenberch 5/10 – Missed a guilt-edge chance to kill the game at 2-1. It came back to haunt his team.

Ibrahima Konate 6/10 – Didn’t do much wrong.

Joe Gomez 5/10 – His introduction breathed new life into Mitoma.

Brighton vs Liverpool match summary and highlights

The first half of the match saw three goals go in the back of the net, with each one highly preventable from a defensive point of view. Firstly, a sloppy ball out of the back from Virgil van Dijk was intercepted by Simon Adringa who took a touch before hitting a whipped effort past Allison who wasn’t expecting the shot.

Later on in the half, it was Liverpool’s turn to capitalise on some sloppy passing out of the back. Mo Salah rifled the ball past Verbruggen in the Brighton net after Dominik Szoboszlai picked up a loose ball in midfield. Then, five minutes later, Liverpool took the lead via a Salah penalty after Szoboszlai was dragged down by Pascal Gross after the German was caught on the ball in his own box.

In truth, Brighton had largely dominated the first half of the match but found themselves 2-1 down at the break. The Seagulls came out in the second half with a more direct approach but it was Liverpool who had the first big chance to kill the game. Ryan Gravenberch, who came on at half time, somehow hit the bar from six yards out with nothing but an empty net in front of him.

Brighton got a second wind towards the end of the match and made it 2-2 when Lewis Dunk was left unmarked in front of goal following a Solly March free kick. Unlike Gravenberch, Dunk kept the ball down to earn his team a point.

Player of the match: Simon Adingra

The Ivorian winger seems like yet another find from the Brighton scouting department. The 21-year-old took his goal expertly well and terrorised Andy Robertson down the right wing from the first minute until the last. He had a chance in the second half to get his second goal of the game, too, but on this occasion Alisson made a good save to deny.

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