Mohamed Salah of Liverpool celebrates with teammate Curtis Jones after Hugo Ekitike scored his team's second goal during the Premier League match between Liverpool and Brighton & Hove Albion at Anfield on December 13, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)placeholder image
Mohamed Salah of Liverpool celebrates with teammate Curtis Jones after Hugo Ekitike scored his team's second goal during the Premier League match between Liverpool and Brighton & Hove Albion at Anfield on December 13, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Liverpool earned a 2-0 victory over Brighton in the Premier League to move up to sixth in the table.
The Reds earned a 2-0 victory, with Hugo Ekitike’s double taking the majority of the plaudits. The pre-match build-up was dominated by Mo Salah, who made a return to Liverpool’s squad after his recent outburst. Salah came off the bench in the first half and assisted Ekitike’s second goal.
Ekitike has now scored 10 times since signing from Eintracht Frankfurt in the summer transfer window. He also fired a brace in last weekend’s 3-3 draw at Leeds. But Murphy reckons that Jones was Liverpool’s standout performer.
The former Liverpool midfielder said: “Hugo Ekiteke is full of confidence. He was pivotal in all Liverpool’s good stuff today. The importance of the win, particularly after Inter was massive.
“Arne Slot changed the system from midweek... went back to the 4-3-2-1 and the way Brighton play suited Liverpool. I thought Curtis Jones stood out and it was another good performance from Wirtz.
“I think what I took from today and midweek was the importance of Curtis Jones. I thought he was brilliant again setting the tone without the ball and great with it. I also think Wirtz had another good first half or 60 minutes because he got a bit leggy at the end.”
Ekitike opened the scoring inside the first minute with a fine finish. Brighton had several chances to level, while
Having opened the scoring, Ekitike doubled the lead on the hour mark when he headed home Salah’s corner. Liverpool’s victory stretched their unbeaten run to five games and they moved up to sixth in the Premier League table.
"Hard work. We had to work really hard for this win because we faced a very good team that kept going to the end. For the first time in weeks, I feel like we had a bit of luck today. We have a clean sheet and in other games we have conceded three without the other team having as many chances.
"In the second half in the moments they had, when we were together in and around our box. We had chances on the counter but I quite liked the way we played. Maybe we deserved this bit of luck, because of the mentality that we showed and the injuries and other things like that."
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