Liverpool’s 0-3 Home Defeat To Atalanta Leave Their Europa League Hopes Hanging

Gianluca Scamacca scored twice and Mario Pasalic added another as the Reds were stunned and lost their long-held home record on a chaotic night at Anfield.
Atalanta stunned Liverpool in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final at Anfield.

Liverpool had a proud unbeaten record at Anfield stretching back to February 21, 2023 when Real Madrid won 4-3 – a run of 33 matches – but were way off the pace against an out-of-form side who sit sixth in Serie A.
Jurgen Klopp made six substitutions for the match and was surprised by his team’s performance in what will be his final European home game unless they perform spectacularly in the second leg in Bergamo.

Darwin Nunez spurned a presentable one-on-one chance and Harvey Elliott struck the crossbar with a bending shot before Atalanta hit the front.
Former West Ham striker Gianluca Scamacca gave Atalanta the lead when his scuffed finish somehow snuck underneath Caoimhin Kelleher at the near post and the Liverpool goalkeeper was forced into two important stops before the break.

Andy Robertson, Dominik Szoboszlai and Mohamed Salah were summoned from the bench at half-time, but to little effect and Atalanta hit back with a sucker punch.
Scamacca was given the freedom of the penalty area to side-foot home another cross on the hour-mark.

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Klopp chose to make six changes to the team which drew 2-2 at Manchester United.
One of which saw Andy Robertson left on the bench to allow Kostas Tsimikas a start at left-back.
That decision looked like a simple case of rotation at the start of the match, but by half-time it looked like a serious error.

While Tsimikas made a few overhit crosses going forward, that was not his main issue. He was nowhere to be seen for Atalanta’s opening goal, having pushed far too high up the pitch, giving Davide Zappacosta plenty of space to cross for Scamacca.

And, after giving the ball away again, Tsimikas was even more clearly at fault just before the break, as Kelleher smothered Teun Koopmeiners’ effort.

Klopp has high expectations for his full-backs going forward, but Tsimikas’ positioning was disastrous in the first half.

The Liverpool manager was seen sprinting down the tunnel at half-time, and he made three substitutions, one of which included Tsimikas.

When standing in for Alisson this season, Kelleher has been so assured and impressive that it has been easy to overlook the Brazilian No.1’s consistent performance.

The Irishman has generally been calm, dependable, and an excellent game reader. We saw those characteristics in the first half, but we also witnessed a sloppy and entirely avoidable error.

Scamacca’s attempt was bobbled into the ground and should have been easily stopped, but Kelleher failed to react in time. He probably would have preferred one of Atalanta’s other excellent chances to be converted, but he saved brilliantly from Mario Pasalic with his face and from Koopmeiners with his body.