Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler admits his team were undone by an “unbelievable” Cody Gakpo strike in their League Cup defeat to Liverpool. The Reds earned a 3-2 win at the Amex Stadium on Wednesday evening in an entertaining fourth round encounter.
With Liverpool operating without a recognised striker, they struggled to create chances during the first half despite dominating possession.
Gakpo, though, opened the scoring in blistering fashion less than a minute after the interval when he cut in off the left flank and smashed a venomous shot into the far corner.
The Dutchman later netted a second with Luis Diaz also scoring, while Simon Adringa and Tariq Lamptey responded for Brighton
And Hurzeler said: “I knew before today the great character and personality of this squad and we proved it today.
“It’s disappointing to go out of this competition but Liverpool scored at the right moments.
“They scored out of nowhere, it was an unbelievable shot and they had timing on their side today.
“We weren’t able to reply in the right moment.
“We had a lot of positive things but we had negative things otherwise we wouldn’t lose. We have to analyse it.”
Mats Wieffer – who played for Slot at Feyenoord – started for Brighton despite the midfielder having been responsible for a poor mistake that helped gift Wolves a 2-2 Premier League draw at the Seagulls last weekend.
And Hurzeler added: “We saw a great reaction to his mistake on Saturday. It’s not easy to come back like this to show this character after that mistake, not being the best player against Wolves.
“He was asking for the ball, he wasn’t hiding, he made mistakes yes but he kept on asking for the ball. I’m sure he will help us this season.”
