Liverpool moved up to sixth in the Premier League table after Hugo Ekitike’s brace secured a deserved 2-0 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion, extending the Reds’ unbeaten run across all competitions to five matches (W3, D2).
With all the pre-match talk surrounding the return of Mohamed Salah, the Egyptian started on the bench for the hosts, who were looking to build on Tuesday’s impressive 1-0 victory at Inter Milan.
Arne Slot’s side couldn’t have dreamed of a better opening to the contest, with Ekitike collecting a brave header from Joe Gomez and firing beyond Bart Verbruggen after just 46 seconds.
Undeterred by that early setback, Brighton grew into the match and threatened a swift response when Yankuba Minteh powered a strike narrowly wide of the far post, and Diego Gomez saw a close-range effort thwarted by Alisson Becker.
An injury to Liverpool’s Gomez saw Salah introduced to a rapturous applause on 26 minutes, and the Egyptian nearly had an immediate impact when his involvement in a counter-attack culminated in Ekitike curling wide.
Chances continued to flow with half-time approaching, the best of which fell to Gomez, who saw a dangerous strike blocked by Ibrahima Konate.
The Seagulls threatened again at the start of the second period, but Gomez spurned a glorious opportunity at the back post from just a few yards out
That miss proved to be costly, with Liverpool doubling their lead on the hour mark when Salah’s inswinging corner was coolly headed home by an unmarked Ekitike for his seventh league goal of the season.
Faced with a two-goal deficit, Brighton refused to lie down without a fight, as substitute Kaoru Mitoma skewed an effort wide from a promising position
That was ultimately as close as the visitors came to mounting a comeback, as a late chance for Ferdi Kadioglu went begging before Salah missed the chance to kill off the game.
Nonetheless, Liverpool saw out the closing stages to extend their dominant head-to-head home record to just one defeat in 12 meetings (W8, D3).
