Brighton strike late to knock holders Liverpool out of FA Cup

AFP

Holders Liverpool had been knocked out of the FA Cup after shedding 2-1 at Brighton & Hove Albion within the fourth spherical on Sunday as Kaoru Mitoma struck a late winner, earlier than fifth-tier Wrexham had been held to an exciting 3-3 draw by 10-man Sheffield United.

Harvey Elliott put Liverpool forward, Lewis Dunk equalised earlier than halftime and the rating stayed at 1-1 till Mitoma discovered the web within the 92nd minute with a fantastic end.

It was the second time Brighton defeated Liverpool in two weeks, having additionally crushed Juergen Klopp’s aspect 3-0 within the Premier League.

“Unbelievable ending. Sometimes you’ve got to win a game like that. We weren’t at our best today. Nowhere near it. But we ground it out against a top side and got the win,” Dunk advised ITV Sport.

“We feel like we can beat anyone on our best days and we showed here we can beat them on our not-so-good days. We’ve got everything in our squad to keep pushing on and hopefully, we can go further in the competition.”

Earlier, Liverpool’s teenage midfielder Elliott put them forward within the thirtieth minute with a low shot into the far nook following a intelligent cross from Mohamed Salah.

Brighton equalised 9 minutes later when Dunk bought a flick on a long-range effort from Tariq Lamptey which deflected into the aim, with goalkeeper Alisson Becker wrong-footed.

Elliott, who additionally scored in Liverpool’s win within the third-round replay, might have made it 2-1 earlier than halftime as he latched on to Cody Gakpo’s cross however Lamptey made an excellent last-ditch deal with.

ANOTHER CHANCE

Liverpool had one other probability on the hour mark when Salah linked with an exquisite cross from James Milner however the Egypt ahead selected to whip in a cross as an alternative of taking a shot and Brighton keeper Jason Steele simply blocked it.

The tie regarded set for a replay when Brighton’s Solly March missed a golden alternative to attain within the 71st minute when he didn’t beat the onrushing Alisson from shut vary after Mitoma set him up with a superb low cross.

But Mitoma took issues into his personal palms, scoring an excellent aim following a free kick as he managed the ball on the half-volley, dummied and rifled it residence.

It was one other disappointing end result for Liverpool who’ve struggled with type and accidents this season and are ninth within the Premier League standings.

“This season has been nowhere near good enough. At the start of the year, we wanted a fresh start but that hasn’t happened. We’ve been worse,” Liverpool defender Andy Robertson stated.

“In the league, we haven’t been good enough and now we’re out of both cups,” he added.

Championship Stoke City progressed to the fifth spherical after beating fourth-tier Stevenage 3-1 as Jacob Brown scored an early aim adopted by a shocking strike from Josh Laurent and a penalty by Lewis Baker.

Later on Sunday, Wrexham, owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, had been on the verge of recording an upset win over Championship membership Sheffield United earlier than John Egan scored within the fifth minute of stoppage time to drive a replay.

In a frantic second half on the Racecourse Ground, Wrexham twice took the lead by way of Thomas O’Connor and Paul Mullin on both aspect of a sending-off for Daniel Jebbison, however the Welsh membership had been pegged again by targets from Oliver Norwood and Egan.