Isak applies finishing touch as Liverpool bring Brighton’s winning run to an end

Brighton’s impressive run was blown off course at Anfield where Liverpool performed with an appetite and urgency at both ends of the pitch that showed Andoni Iraola’s methods taking root. It was Liverpool, deserving winners on home soil for the first time in the Premier League this season, who looked upwardly mobile.

There was more evidence of the expensive trio of Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Bradley Barcola feeling at home and adapting to Iraola’s demands. Wirtz was instrumental in an opening goal officially credited to Brighton’s Pascal Gross and Isak scored for the sixth time in six Premier League appearances to shatter the visitors’ sequence of four successive league wins. The sight of Barcola sprinting back to help his defence and Ronald Araújo smashing into challenges, as Liverpool stubbornly defended their lead and their box in the second half, satisfied Iraola just as much as his side’s incisiveness before the break.

Fabian Hürzeler praised the Brighton performance and the self-belief necessary to take the game to Liverpool when trailing to two quickfire goals. But he exaggerated the threat they displayed. Yasin Ayari missed a glorious chance to open the scoring and also struck a post, but Alisson was troubled more by his own distribution after Liverpool’s second goal than by anything the visitors engineered.

“I think everyone in the stadium saw there was one team who really tried to create and tried to win this game and therefore I have to praise my players,” claimed the Brighton head coach, prompting a mass raising of eyebrows in the post-match press conference. “The difference was that they scored and we didn’t. They blocked a lot of shots and defended the box well. We didn’t have that efficiency. We couldn’t keep the clean sheet because we made easy mistakes and lost some important personal duels but overall I saw a team with a lot of good things. It is very frustrating because we all have the feeling that there is a missed opportunity here today.”

Storm Boelo raged outside the stadium but inside it was relatively calm, vindicating the decision to proceed with the game. But not for Brighton. Liverpool’s attacking force devastated the visitors’ hopes of a fifth straight win and clean sheet in succession in the Premier League. The hosts were aggressive and sharp from the start, in contrast to their opening against Villarreal in the Champions League, and opened the scoring just as Brighton were beginning to exert their first serious spell of pressure.

There was an element of good fortune about the breakthrough but it also encapsulated the differing intensity between the teams when Wirtz held off Lewis Dunk and Araújo beat the Brighton captain and Olivier Boscagli to the loose ball. His low cross rebounded off two Brighton players before going to Wirtz, whose first-time shot deceived Bart Verbruggen via another deflection off Gross. Wirtz’s low-key celebration hinted at what was to come. It was not his first league goal of the campaign and second goal in successive games after all. The breakthrough was officially credited as an own goal from the Brighton midfielder.

Florian Wirtz’s shot was credited as an own goal by his fellow German, Pascal Gross. Photograph: Adam Vaughan/EPA

It should also have been a Liverpool equaliser rather than the opener. Diego Gómez and Gross combined to pierce Liverpool’s left flank and present Ayari with a free sight of goal with Alisson dragged across to his left. The Brighton forward blazed high into the Kop and would soon have added reason to rue the miscue.

Liverpool soon doubled their lead when capitalising on more casual Brighton defending. Boscagli was again found wanting when attempting to deal with Alisson’s clearance. The left-back struck a clearance straight at Barcola and was left floundering as the France international, deployed on the right, brushed aside his efforts to recover possession. Isak steered Barcola’s delivery inside the far corner with a deft, side-foot finish to score in three consecutive league games for the first time since January 2025. There was no surprise whatsoever when Boscagli was withdrawn at half-time.

skip past newsletter promotion

after newsletter promotion

Brighton attacked with greater conviction than they defended but with Araújo, Jérémy Jacquet and Virgil van Dijk making telling interventions, and receiving impressive support from all quarters, Alisson was not seriously extended. The visitors’ best hope of a recovery stemmed from the Liverpool keeper’s own risky pass to Alexis Mac Allister, which gifted possession back to Brighton and resulted in Ayari striking a post from 20 yards out.

Jack Hinshelwood, Boscagli’s replacement, and fellow substitute Malick Yalcouyé injected more energy and bite into Brighton’s second-half display but an end product from the visitors remained lacking. Too many overhit crosses and poor final balls enabled Liverpool to protect their lead in comfort.

Iraola said: “It is a very valuable win. The key was how we started. We needed a strong start, to be aggressive, recover balls, win our duels, be dangerous in transitions, and we’ve done it and it has been a different game from the last ones when we’ve conceded first.”