Liverpool moved into the Premier League's top four with a 2-0 victory over Brighton and Hove Albion at Anfield, but the result drew sharp criticism from Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler.
Goals from Alexander Isak and a deflected strike credited as an own goal by Pascal Gross gave Andoni Iraola his first league win at Anfield since a 3-1 home victory over Crystal Palace on April 25. The result also lifted Liverpool above Chelsea, who lost to Tottenham.
Hurzeler's post-match criticism
Speaking at his post-match press conference, Hurzeler was dismissive of Liverpool's performance, insisting his side were the only team that created chances and tried to win.
"I think everyone in the stadium saw that there was one team who really tried to create and try to win this game and therefore I have to praise my players," he said.
"I think everyone in the stadium, and you as well, felt there was a missed opportunity for us, because it's not only after the goal or the goals they scored. Also, before they scored, we had one, two big chances and today I think it was just the difference that they scored, we didn't score."
He added: "They kept a clean sheet because they defended well with their centre-backs, with full-back [Ronald] Araujo and with [Milos] Kerkez. I think they blocked a lot of shots. They really defended the box well. We didn't have that efficiency. We couldn't keep the clean sheet because we made easy mistakes, we lost some important personal duels."
Fans hail new hero Araujo
Liverpool supporters have embraced Ronald Araujo, who joined on loan from Barcelona during the summer window. Despite the old football adage about not falling for loan players, the Anfield faithful cheered as he threw himself head-first to block a point-blank shot.
Araujo also took a blow to the face from Malick Yalcouye in the dying moments while halting a counterattack, drawing another jubilant response from the home fans.
The club retains an option to purchase Araujo for approximately £47m at the end of the campaign, though it is too soon to know whether they will commit the funds to a permanent deal.
