Brighton 0 Liverpool 2
Sadio Mane and Luis Diaz star in yet another stroll in 3rd gear
Sadio Mane and Luis Diaz star in yet another stroll in 3rd gear
Regular readers of my football column for Sports Unillustrated will be fully aware of my reasoned arguments of late that the Reds of Liverpool have won their last handful of games whilst not playing anywhere near their exalted “PlayStation Football” levels of play. Today was no different.
Throughout the month of February and now with the ides of March approaching, the Reds have taken a maximum 18 points from 6 league games and have only conceded 1 goal in the process! Leicester, Burnley, Norwich, Leeds, West Ham and Brighton have been brushed aside (15–1 goals aggregate) and the Reds of Liverpool haven’t really raised themselves from a 3rd gear stroll, and today was no different. This Liverpool team play football from the sporting Gods and even when they don’t (or don’t have to), they win in a comfortable stroll.
Brighton were dreadful today but as equally dreadful as the game was as a whole. They started each half brightly, dominated the first 15 minutes of scrappy play and Danny Welbeck saw his last minute header brilliantly saved by Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker. The Brazilian goalkeeper produced this world class save having had nothing else to do all game as the only highlights for a labouring and slow paced Brighton fell to their pesky and pacey duo of Neal Maupay and Leandro Trossard. Both strikers had half chances in the opening 8 minutes of the game before in the opening minute of the second half, and with Liverpool holding a slender 1–0 lead, the strikers combined scrappily to force a clear and close in chance for Trossard who blazed high and wide over Becker’s crossbar.
It rather summed up Brighton’s day.
Liverpool were sluggish and off key in the game’s opening quarter of an hour and only sprung into life via a delicious and defence splitting pass from the Premier League’s current “Player of the Month”, Joel Matip. His simple curling through ball was bravely headed into an empty Brighton goal by Luis Diaz who was absolutely flattened by the advancing goalkeeper Robert Sanchez as he did so. Sanchez’s unnecessary recklessness and dangerous play should have seen him sent from the field of play but incredibly his clattering challenge did not even warrant a yellow card from Referee Mike Dean or those killjoy characters who man the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) booth. Mo Salah raced half the length of the field on the cusp of the half-time break but couldn’t find a way past Sanchez in the Brighton goal and the half could be summed up simply as one of “tricks and flicks” from a Liverpool happy to be leading in a game really going nowhere. Mane’s overhead flick to start an attack was a sublime joy to see and so was the industrious nature of Luis Diaz and his instant control, deft touches, flicks and one-two passes around the Brighton penalty area.
Mo Salah’s successful conversion of a 61st minute penalty to make the score 2–0 was in the middle of a 5 minute spell that Brighton midfielder Yves Bissouma will be endeavouring to forget in a hurry. His anger at a refereeing decision saw him yellow carded before his outstretched arm led to the penalty kick before mere moments later he was substituted. Salah too was strangely substituted not long after scoring his penalty and the goal that would seal the contest as finished and 3 points securely gained for his team. Let’s hope he hasn’t picked up an injury and his substitution just a precaution. It would be perfectly in keeping with a game that with 29 minutes remaining, and after Salah’s penalty made the score line 2–0, a contest that was firmly over. Welbeck’s header forced a truly brilliant one handed save from Alisson Becker, but the game had been over for a long time before this last minute piece of brilliance from the Brazilian in the Liverpool goal.
A 3rd gear stroll in the South Coast sunshine and whisper it, the Reds still have the destiny of the League Championship in their own hands.
Thanks for reading. Please see the links below to a plethora of writing contained within my archives on the Mighty Reds of Liverpool:
Liverpool 0 Inter Milan 1
On yet another crazy European night at Anfield, the Reds squeak into the Quarter-Finals of the European Cupmedium.com
Kid Kelleher The Kop Hero!
Liverpool win their 9th League Cup after a nerve shredding Wembley Finalmedium.com
A stroll through Scrapbook Lane and around the Fields of Anfield Road — Part 8
Liverpool FC Season 1994–95. A resumption in the collection of footballing silverware, and the Spice Boys are beginning…medium.com