Just when Jürgen Klopp thought that things could not get any worse for his Liverpool team and, especially, here on the south coast. When they were last here two weeks ago, the 3-0 Premier League defeat was, to paraphrase the manager, a historic low. Klopp could not remember a worse performance by one of his teams, Liverpool’s traumatic season suffering one of its deepest cuts.
It was a big reason why this FA Cup tie mattered so much. And yet from a position of strength, a goal to the good through Harvey Elliott, they were reeled in by a Brighton team that are attracting fresh superlatives from week to week.