LIVERPOOL .....
The raking tackle down the back of the legs of Evan Ferguson from Fabinho, after coming on in the 85th minute, deserved more than a yellow card but VAR stayed frustratingly silent. Liverpool should already have been a man short two minutes earlier.
Konate, caught out by Alexis Mac Allister’s run, planted his arm across the back of his neck but somehow escaped a foul and the inevitable award of a (right) second yellow.
Outside the box, and not enough to warrant a straight red,VAR had no jurisdiction.
Justice
Brighton claimed their own justice in the best way possible – the final whistle greeted by euphoric scenes from their colossal captain Lewis Dunk to man-of-the-match Mitoma, who caused havoc to a Liverpool defence who these days simply do not look up to the task. It is just 15 days since the Seagulls thrashed Liverpool 3-0 here in the league but it is little consolation for Jurgen Klopp that things had at least improved since then.
It was a classic cup tie and in the final crucial minutes the Merseysiders were simply not capable of seeing the match through.
There was even a slice of controversy about their opener on the half-hour.
A worryingly uncharacteristic miss when through on goal by Mo Salah five minutes earlier would have probably been ruled offside by VAR.
Harvey Elliott then showed him how it was done when Salah turned provider, even if replays showed the ball hit the arm of Naby Keita in the build up with, again, no VAR intervention.
Dunk was the unexpected source of the equaliser as Liverpool failed to take their lead into the break.