Match Report
Two goals from Hugo Ekitike secured Liverpool a 2-0 win over Brighton & Hove Albion at Anfield in the Premier League.
The striker grabbed his first in the opening minute of Saturday's affair and then doubled the Reds' lead with a header in the second half.
The brace and clean sheet saw Arne Slot's men stretch their unbeaten run to five matches in all competitions.
Team
Milos Kerkez and Florian Wirtz were the two alterations to the line-up Liverpool deployed at Internazionale in midweek.
Curtis Jones took his appearance total for the club to 200, while Virgil van Dijk made his 250th outing for the Reds in the Premier League.
First half
The opener officially clocked in at 46 seconds after the referee blew his whistle to start proceedings.
A Yankuba Minteh clearance floated across his own penalty area and was eventually nodded forward towards Ekitike by Joe Gomez.
The Frenchman took a touch and then smashed a finish past Bart Verbruggen for his ninth goal of the season.
Brighton came close to levelling with a pair of opportunities in quick succession, Mintah playing a central role in both.
The winger was fractionally just wide with an attempted curler into the far corner before slipping a pass to send Diego Gomez through on goal, with the resulting shot kept out by the feet of Alisson Becker.
Ekitike dragged efforts off target ahead of the Reds losing Gomez to injury midway through the half.
Mohamed Salah was his replacement, with Dominik Szoboszlai dropping into right-back, and involved right away.
He was played in by Szoboszlai and shifted the ball on to Alexis Mac Allister, who looked to do the same for Ekitike before Verbruggen came out to intercept.
Liverpool's final chances of the period saw them threaten with an Ekitike side-foot on the back of a counter-attack and Ryan Gravenberch firing straight at the goalkeeper after some neat footwork.
Second half
Ekitike nearly had his second not long after the break, driving across the pitch but unable to hit the target with the eventual strike.
A minute later at the other end, Gomez will have thought he should have drawn the visitors level.
He was found at the back post by Mats Wieffer's low cross, though could only manage to find the side-netting with the close-range finish.
Another warning sign followed as Brajan Gruda went just wide with a hit from inside the penalty area.
The Reds heeded those close calls to establish a healthy cushion on the hour mark.
Salah earned the corner that led to the second, taking aim and forcing Verbruggen to divert the strike behind.
His delivery of the set-piece was then sent towards the back stick and met by the leap of Ekitike.
As a result of that assist, Salah claimed the Premier League record for goal involvements for a single club.
Kaoru Mitoma, Ferdi Kadioglu and Yasin Ayari threatened to halve the deficit, although Salah could have supplied a third goal for his team but fired over from Federico Chiesa's pass off a breakaway.
SOURCE: www.liverpoolfc.com
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