A late penalty and questionable VAR decisions mean that Brighton
and Liverpool share the points.

Brighton 1 – 1 Liverpool

Brighton: Groß 90+3’ (PEN)Liverpool: Jota 59’

Pre-Match

Klopp continues his mixing and matching in defense and the
midfield. The Reds start the game with a Nat Phillips/Fabinho
center-back pairing and a midfield of Milner, Minamino and
Wijnaldum. It’s a cold and dreary day in Brighton as the team kicks
off.

First Half

Liverpool start off brightly. Within the first five minutes,
Diogo Jota and Minamino both nearly set up Salah. Jota’s pass
doesn’t quite meet the target while Salah gets blocked for the
second and the ball goes out for a corner.

After that, however, Brighton began to work themselves into the
game, finding easy ways around the makeshift defense.

In the 19th minute, substitute right-back Neco Williams concedes
a reckless foul in the box, and Brighton find themselves with a
penalty. Alisson dives the wrong way for Neal Maupay’s spot kick,
but luckily the shot is wide. For the second week in a row,
Liverpool are let off after conceding a penalty.

The game remains goalless, but Brighton look like the best side
at the moment.

Maupay’s day has gone from bad to worse. He falls down with a
likely hamstring injury and limps off of the pitch after failing to
get his team ahead. Liverpool play for several minutes up a man as
Brighton ready Maupay’s substitute, but they can’t make the
numerical advantage count.

Only Brighton’s inability get a shot on target have saved
Liverpool so far. The Reds have been chasing the home side who,
thankfully, couldn’t seem to make that final touch count. That
experimental midfield will need an overhaul at halftime, because
they’re getting spanked right now. Jordan Henderson is on the
bench, so look for him to come on and tighten them up.

Then against the run of play, Salah scores in the 33rd minute.
However, the goal is deemed offside, and Liverpool’s momentary joy
has been extinguished once again through the scourge of VAR.

A missed penalty and an offside goal mean that the two teams
head into halftime without a goal.

Second Half

As expected, Henderson comes on in the second half, but it’s as
a replacement for Williams. Milner moves to right-back and
Henderson takes his place in the middle of the pitch.

As in the first half, Liverpool start off well, but begin to let
Brighton work their way back inside the first 10 minutes.

GOALLLL! 59 Jota – Any surprise, it’s Jota who opens up the
scoring for Liverpool. Thanks goes to Andy Robertson, who deftly
maneuvers around Yves Bissouma to begin the attack. Robertson gets
the ball to Salah, and there’s an interchange between him and Jota,
before Jota slots it home.

And now Brighton bring off their best player today, Aaron
Connolly, who is not pleased to be replaced by former Liverpool man
Adam Lallana. Not to be outdone, Salah visibly sulks when he’s
substituted by teammate Sadio Mané at the 60 minute mark. It’s
clear that Klopp is trying to manage his superstars’ fitness in the
face of mounting injuries and, like, 5,000 upcoming games.

Speaking of injuries, first Lallana goes down within eight
minutes, and then moments later, Milner massages his hamstring and
gets taken out for Curtis Jones. Jones himself is just barely back
to fitness, so this is fun. Loving it. Great game.

Oh hey, and there goes Phillips, falling heavily and requiring
medical assistance. Liverpool have already made their three
changes, so though Klopp looked concerned, the young defender stays
on the pitch.

Ben White goes studs up on Jota and earns himself a yellow card
and Liverpool a free kick. Robertson takes it, and Mané scores, but
the goal is rightly called off by VAR. Can’t complain about that
one…but I will, obviously.

There are five additional minutes for Liverpool to try and hold
on for the three points here. Wow, Robertson…I don’t even know.
Kind of touches Danny Welbeck’s foot with his toes as they both go
for the ball. After doing a VAR check, the referee deems this a
penalty. I guess Robertson kicked out? I don’t know. I’m tired.
It’s too early for this.

Goal 90+3’ Pascal Groß – Groß converts the penalty and the two
teams split the points.

Final Thoughts

A draw is probably a fair result given the performances, but I’m
not happy about it.