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24 min: Gross tries to make good down the middle of the park but is tugged back slyly by Mac Allister. A free kick, but not a booking for some reason. Liverpool have got away with a couple of borderline ones. The next time they might not be so lucky.
23 min: Liverpool are pressing Brighton back, but can’t fashion a decent shooting opportunity. Gakpo tries from a tight angle on the left. Easily blocked. Chiesa attempts to race around Gomez on the right, but runs out of pitch. Goal kick. All of this has got the crowd going again, though.
21 min: Kerkez scampers after what looks like a lost cause down the left. An overhit pass by Gakpo. But he makes it, clipping a cross from the byline that’s blocked out for a corner by Van Hecke. It’s easily caught by Steele. Meanwhile with the number 20 on the scoreboard, the home fans sing their hearts out about their beloved lad from Portugal. Better than Figo, don’t you know?
19 min: … nothing much happens. “You referred to the game three years ago, which was obviously heartbreaking as a Liverpool fan, but that heartbreak was slightly tempered by the sheer beauty of Mitoma’s winner,” recalls Matt Dony. “It’s not a goal that gets talked about often, but it should be. Astonishing presence of mind and technique. Annoyingly so.”
18 min: A free kick sent into the Brighton box from the left by Szoboszlai. Van Hecke rises highest to flick out for a corner. From which …
16 min: Salah goes direct, looking for the far corner. It’s always sailing high and wide. Reports of that relocated mojo perhaps premature. Then, overplaying out from the back, Steele puts Baleba into all sorts of danger on the edge of his own box with a hospital pass. Baleba does extremely well to dig the ball out and hack clear, under intense pressure from Gakpo and Szoboszlai.
15 min: Dunk goes into the book for a cynical check on Wirtz, just to the right of the Brighton box. Salah to take the free kick, with everyone waiting in the middle.
14 min: Gomez dribbles left to right across the face of the Liverpool box, enters it, and crosses low. There’s nobody in the middle to poke home. What a run, though. A fresh, open start to this game. Both teams showing plenty of promise in attack.
13 min: Van Dijk strokes a defence-splitter down the inside-left channel for Kerkez, who takes one touch inside the Brighton box to sit down both Howell and Van Hecke. He shoots straight at Steele; he really should have scored. But the flag goes up for offside.
11 min: Salah skates past Dunk down the right with the ease of old. Approaching the corner of the six-yard box, he takes one touch too many, caught between shooting and cutting back, and is dispossessed. For a moment there, though, that was a bright flash of the Salah of yesteryear. He was decent against Sunderland during midweek, too. Is Mo getting his mojo back?
10 min: Howell barrels down the inside-right channel and is nudged from behind by Chiesa, who got a bit of the ball but also plenty of man, and was running the risk of picking up a booking. From the resulting free kick, Kadioglu has a whack from distance, but that’s easy for Alisson.
8 min: … and that start’s had the effect of quietening Anfield a bit. Task one complete.
7 min: Brighton have enjoyed 75 percent possession in these early exchanges. The very definition of a confident start by the visitors.
6 min: Brighton stroke it around patiently. Liverpool hold their shape, equally patiently. Wirtz suddenly springs the press and the ball ends up with Jones, who tries to find Gakpo with a long right-to-left diagonal. Easy for Van Hecke to deal with.
4 min: Chiesa looks to burst down the left touchline, but is penalised for a barge on Veltman. A slightly soft free kick. Chiesa would have been away had it not been given.
3 min: Salah tries to get something going for Liverpool, launching long down the inside-right channel for Wirtz. Van Hecke heads back calmly to his keeper, just in time.
2 min: Jones is indeed playing at right-back tonight. He does very well to nick the ball off Kadioglu, who very nearly got round him down the Brighton left. Then Hinshelwood has a look down the same flank. Brighton have started well.
1 min: Whigfield lied about the air. It’s a cold night on Merseyside.
After an exuberant rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone, Brighton get the ball rolling. They’re kicking towards the Kop in this first half.
The teams are out! A wonderful Saturday night atmosphere at Anfield. I feel the air is getting hot. Liverpool in all red, Brighton in their blue and white stripes. It’s party time in a couple of minutes. Dee-dee-da-da-dum, be my baby.
Pre-match postbag. “I woke up this morning excited but trepidatious, a strange feeling of dread, knot in my stomach, cos it was, you know, Valentine’s Day, maybe this year will be the year, Scotland v England at the T20 World Cup, followed by Dundee United at Falkirk, then the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield. The cricket went as expected, but United secured a famous come-from-behind victory at Falkirk, then Scotland gave the Auld Enemy a pumping for the ages in the rugby. As Mr Loaf once sang, two outta three ain’t bad. Quite what any of this has to do with Liverpool v Brighton I’m not sure, but hey, it’s Saturday night, right? Actually, it’s S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y .... NIGHT!!! Cheers! PS. You’re guaranteeing goals I hope” – Simon McMahon
Oh Simon, I love it when you drink your whisky.
Meanwhile Ian Copestake adds: “I am aged enough to have been sent on quite the Proustian ride by your preamble. Brighton should channel that past by donning white headbands.”
The penultimate tie of the day has just finished at Villa Park, where Newcastle have done a number on their ten-man hosts. Barry Glendenning has all the details.
Fabian Hürzeler speaks to TNT. “Every game is an opportunity to make it better than the last game … a good opportunity to get back on track … to keep focussing on our performance … enforcing our habits … stick to our principles … to go to a big stadium against a big opponent and try to have the belief to win this game … it’s important to keep focusing on the small margins … defensive stability … the belief that we can go to every stadium in the world and play our style of play … courage in possession and out of possession … we have quality … we are capable of beating everyone … confidence … key principles … our players have to trust in ourselves … it is do or die so we have to go all-in … a great opportunity to go to the next round.”
He also stresses his belief in 17-year-old Harry Howell, who only made his full Premier League debut last week against Crystal Palace, and is making his first FA Cup appearance tonight. “We all have trust and belief in him … he showed a good performance against Palace and Villa so deserves to be on the pitch … we all see a guy who is really looking forward to this game … a lot of courage and belief in his own quality … I hope he plays a good game tonight.”
Arne Slot talks to TNT Sports. “[The win at Sunderland] was very important because we have lost far too many times games we didn’t deserve to lose … far too many points behind teams we want to compete with … [we won] by a set piece, which was unusual for us … we always try to go for every trophy … that is normal if you are Liverpool … we also have to be realistic … we cannot take the risk of losing more players than we have already lost … it is a very strong team but maybe usually people would have expected Hugo [Ekitike] and Ryan [Gravenberch] … I prefer to have more midfielders than defenders or attackers because midfielders are able to play in multiple positions … [Brighton] have a strong first team and bench … no academy players on the bench … but if you look here [gesticulates towards the Liverpool teamsheet] you see a bit of a difference … [both teams] have been unlucky this season.”
He’s also pressed, by TNT pundit Steve McManaman slipping into full passive-aggressive banter mode – “You can tell us, we won’t tell anybody” - into revealing that Curtis Jones will fill in at right-back and not Dominik Szoboszlai. “I don’t think it matters much if another team knows,” he sniffs reluctantly, a little frost at the edges of a very low-intensity smile.
Liverpool make four changes to their starting line-up after their 1-0 win at Sunderland. Dominik Szoboszlai returns from suspension, while Curtis Jones, Milos Kerkez and Federico Chiesa all step up. Hugo Ekitike, Ryan Gravenberch and Andrew Robertson drop to the bench, while Wataru Endo is injured.
Brighton make three changes to their starting XI following their 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa. Jason Steele replaces Bart Verbruggen in goal, while Charalampos Kostoulas and 17-year-old Harry Howell come in for Kaoru Mitoma and Danny Welbeck, surprisingly dropped to the bench.
The teams
Liverpool: Alisson, Szoboszlai, van Dijk, Konate, Kerkez, Mac Allister, Jones, Wirtz, Salah, Chiesa, Gakpo.
Brighton & Hove Albion: Steele, Dunk, van Hecke, Hinshelwood, Kostoulas, Baleba, Kadioglu, Gomez, Gross, Veltman, Howell.
Preamble
Liverpool go into this match off the back of an impressive midweek win at Sunderland that eased the pressure building on Arne Slot. Brighton by contrast are reeling from the concession of a late, late winner at Aston Villa. Meanwhile the Reds have won four of their last five matches against the Seagulls. So.
But! Brighton created plenty of chances in their 2-0 defeat at Anfield a couple of months ago. And they’ve got form against Liverpool in the cup, having knocked Jürgen Klopp’s side out three years ago, and famously seeing off the otherwise all-conquering team of the Paisley-Fagan era in back-to-back seasons. So despite being on an underwhelming run right now – no win for Fabian Hürzeler’s men since the third-round victory at Manchester United, six matches ago – they’ll not be without hope. Could be a doozy. Kick-off is at 8pm GMT. Extra time and pens if necessary. It’s on!
