Brighton Dumps Holders Liverpool Out Of The FA Cup.

Brighton and Hove Albion knock-out holders Liverpool out of the FA Cup following a 2-1 victory at the Amex Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Liverpool’s rotten form continues, as their disastrous season suffered another blow after Japanese winger Kaoru Mitoma scored a brilliant late winner to ensure the Seagulls advance to the fifth round.

Mohammed Salah found Harvey Elliott in the box who put the visitors Liverpool in front in the 30thinute, before Brighton equalised with a stroke of fortune when Tariq Lamptey’s shot was deflected home by Lewis Dunk, making it level at the break following an entertaining first half.

Both sides created chances to win it in the second period but it was Mitoma who finally delivered the quality required, taking a calm touch before flicking the ball away from a defender and steering it into the far corner past Alisson in the 90+2 minute.

Mitoma who joined Brighton from Kawasaki Frontale for just £2.5m in 2021, now has four goals and an assist in his last six games.

The victory for Brighton have now won back-to-back games against Liverpool for the first time in the club's history. They had won 3-0 when Liverpool came visiting in the Premier League two weeks ago.

Roberto De Zerbi remains undefeated against Jürgen Klopp.

The defeat is another huge blow to Klopp's men who for large parts of the match were much better than in previous weeks. 

They are now out of the Carabao Cup, FA Cup, currently ninth in the Premier League table, 10 points off the top four, as they would hope to regain their form before the round-of-16 Champions League encounter with title holders Real Madrid at the end of February.

Last season they were only two games away from an unprecedented quadruple.

"I didn't become a bad manager overnight. I was never as good as people probably said and not as bad as some people might think," Klopp had said before Liverpool's FA Cup game with Brighton.

"Last year was super-intense, much longer than we could have expected because who expects to get into four finals?" 

"That it would be difficult this season was clear, but with lesser injuries we could easily have four or five points more. We still don't play a brilliant season but we would be around fighting for the Champions League and that's a normal season".