Liverpool put forward one of their strongest performances of the season as they comfortably beat Brighton to progress to the fifth round of the FA Cup.
Goals from Curtis Jones, Dominik Szoboszlai and Mohamed Salah saw the Reds cruise past the Seagulls in one of the better performances Arne Slot's side have produced in recent months.
It is just the third time this season that Liverpool have embarked on a run where they have won two domestic games in succession as they look to save their campaign with a cup run.
After a fairly even start to proceedings, Liverpool began to grow as the first half went on and thought they had found an opener when Cody Gakpo headed home a wicked free-kick from Dominik Szoboszlai.
Those celebrations were short-lived after a delayed offside flag went up to rule it out. However, the disappointment lasted all of five minutes as Jones, who was filling in as a makeshift right-back, tapped home from close range after a perfect low cross from Milos Kerkez.
Brighton started the second half positively, with Alisson having to be on hand to produce a wonderful save to deny Lewis Dunk an equaliser. He was rewarded moments later when his side doubled their lead.
It came from the best move of the game as Kerkez switched the play over to Salah. The Egyptian cushioned the ball perfectly into the path of Szoboszlai's run, and Liverpool's man of the moment emphatically doubled their tally with a powerful finish.
Any chance of an unlikely Brighton comeback was swiftly ended as Salah was brought down inside the area by Pascal Gross, with the forward firing home the resulting penalty to wrap up proceedings.
The Reds will now wait until Monday's draw to see who they will meet in the fifth round, while Brighton's poor run of form continues, with the Seagulls now without a win in their last five games.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot speaking to TNT Sports post-match:
"Many times this season when we played here, it wasn't possible to press, because of the style of play of the other team,.
"As I said before the game, today we have two teams that have a similar style. They want to bring the ball out from the back, as you could see in our second goal, and two teams who want to press high.
"The modern Premier League is not that much about bringing the ball out from the back, it's a lot about the direct style of play and a lot about set-pieces. But today we faced a team that wanted to bring the ball out from the back, and then I think we showed that we are still as good as last season off the ball.
"But the playing style of opponents has massively changed throughout the league, but particularly against us."
Dominik Szoboszlai speaking with TNT Sports after 3-0 win over Brighton:
"I just want to keep going and score as many as I can.
"I'm not playing a Steven Gerrard season. Although he was a legend at the club, I'm trying to write my own story.
"I try to do my best every game. Hopefully we can go on until the end."
Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler speaking with BBC Sport:
"We started the game well, controlled the ball and the game changed a little bit when they scored. The goal came out of nowhere. We had two big chances in the first half and we didn't use them. Liverpool were more effective.
"Second half it was the same picture we had a big chance with Lewis and then a two or three minutes after they scored.
"That was the difference, they used their moments and we didn't in the way they did. In the end it is a disappointing result because our fans were great today, they supported us for 90 minutes and they deserved more.
"We can't feel sorry for ourselves, we can't complain about these moments. It is about us and me taking responsibility and working for it. You have to do the small step right and then we can take a big step."
