Liverpool

With 11 minutes left in this FA Cup fourth-round tie and the score 1-1 Jürgen Klopp could be seen racing out to the touchline, yanking the snood from his ...

And that was pretty much that for Liverpool, who never really looked like winning this game in the second half. The main negative was a lack of any obvious understanding the rest of the time. Klopp will feel it was poor defending, poor cover, sleepiness in the centre. The main positive here for Liverpool was the odd flicker of synergy between the front three. He glides, he skates, he dusts the ground. The Amex Stadium was a grey chilly place at kick off, with a low nautical drizzle creeping in under its swooping plastic eaves. On the other hand, this does not look like a team poised to mount an irresistible surge. Brighton would go on to win the game, deservedly, with a brilliant goal a minute and half into stoppage time. There has been talk of tired players, of the shadows of last season’s ghost quadruple, of recruitment mistakes made, of Klopp losing his magic dust. Elliott made a wonderful run through the centre as Salah scurried down the right. At the final whistle Klopp hugged Roberto De Zerbi and hand-slapped the Brighton bench. It was beautifully taken by Karou Mitoma, a footballer who is basically made of feathers, dandelion spurs and some kind of super-light high-tensile alien metal.

Brighton & Hove Albion 2 Liverpool 1. Just when Jürgen Klopp thought that things could not get any worse for his Liverpool team and, especially, here on the ...

Elliott played the final pass and it was a beauty, releasing Salah in behind the Brighton backline only for him to drag past the far post. Liverpool menaced on the break, Brighton’s interventions sometimes a little last-ditch, and Elliott’s goal followed a clearance from Naby Keïta to Salah. He got in off the right time and again and it was his run and pass that sliced Brighton apart for Elliott’s breakthrough goal. Liverpool wanted to change the narrative and Mohamed Salah was in the mood from the first whistle. Brighton had been portrayed as the pre-match favourites in some quarters and that probably talked to what happened here the last time. What followed was a blur of technical brilliance, the winger coming inside with a right-footed touch and then, with the same boot, picking out the far, top corner.

Jürgen Klopp saw some encouraging signs from Liverpool's display in the 2-1 defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion but determined it not good enough to progress ...

In the end, one goal is deflected and one is in the 92nd minute, so that's a bad piece of the truth as well. We have to build on these kind of things, we have to improve, we have to do better, body language with a couple of boys has to be much better, defending in the formation has to be better from a few. You should not forget that, but we are still out and that's obviously the worst outcome of a game you can have. But we are obviously in a situation where we constantly want to make the final step, and that’s why it feels now especially bad in this moment because it didn't happen. If we are in a better situation, 10 points more in the league and stuff like this and then you lose here at Brighton, you just say, 'Respect.' What they do is really good. We closed these gaps for the majority of the time, but then all of a sudden not that well anymore. You never hear a manager sitting in a situation like this, 'By the way, we change that and then you will see against Wolves.' It doesn’t go like this and that’s why we keep working 100 per cent. We make steps but we have to improve, we have to improve further on and that's what we will do. But there were, again, steps in the right direction – you can imagine nobody wants to hear that anymore, I cannot hear it anymore, but it's still right. Obviously for Darwin it’s a bit more tricky to do all these kind of things, he is not used to it, and we have to really work a lot with him to involve him in these moments. We came here to go through to the next round, with the game a couple of weeks ago in mind, which was pretty much rock-bottom of the performances we had in my time [here]. We pretty much closed the gaps where they passed through last time, but around set-pieces that doesn't help, so you have to do different stuff, so twice we were not close enough to avoid the goal.

Brighton dumped holders Liverpool out of the FA Cup thanks to a brilliant 92nd minute winner from Kaoru Mitoma as the Seagulls ran out deserved 2-1 winners to progress to the fifth round of the competition. The hosts, as expected, were without wantaway ...

But it just means we have to keep working. "We have to build. The Seagulls have outclassed many visitors to the Amex this season, but none more so than under-fire Liverpool. "After we came back from the World Cup break we wanted to go for it. In the table we stay in sixth. Last game here we couldn't have won, but this today nobody would be surprised if we had won. We make steps but we have to improve. "This was a different team to the last game. "If we don't lose Caicedo we are ready to fight for Europe," he added. To become a great team you have to win this game. "We will not fall apart, I can tell you...there were steps in the right direction," Klopp said afterwards. The result is important but the performance also.

Curtis Jones (Liverpool) wins a free kick on the right wing. 90'+2' goal icon. Goal! Brighton and Hove Albion 2, Liverpool 1. Kaoru Mitoma ...

Evan Ferguson (Brighton and Hove Albion) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Solly March (Brighton and Hove Albion) left footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Lewis Dunk (Brighton and Hove Albion) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) left footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Harvey Elliott (Liverpool) right footed shot from the right side of the box to the bottom left corner. Kaoru Mitoma (Brighton and Hove Albion) right footed shot from the right side of the six yard box to the high centre of the goal. Brighton and Hove Albion 0, Liverpool 1. Brighton and Hove Albion 1, Liverpool 1. Brighton and Hove Albion 2, Liverpool 1. Kaoru Mitoma (Brighton and Hove Albion) wins a free kick in the defensive half. Attempt blocked. Evan Ferguson (Brighton and Hove Albion) wins a free kick in the defensive half.

Liverpool's defence of the Emirates FA Cup ended on Sunday afternoon when they were beaten 2-1 away at Brighton & Hove Albion.

But the Reds' backline was beaten in the second minute of injury time. Salah led a breakaway and charged, before threading a ball through to Elliott at the right time. But Kaoru Mitoma then netted a winner in injury time for Brighton to eliminate the holders from the competition.