Atalanta produced a stunning performance to demolish 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 changes for the match and was shocked by the performance his side put in, on what will be his final European home match unless they produce a huge turnaround 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. Salah thought he had got a goal back from Robertson's low cross, but he was narrowly offside and Mario Pasalic gobbled up a rebound to send the away fans into dreamland. Here are the talking points from Mirror Football.
Tsimikas absent without leave
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 put in a few overhit crosses going forward, that was not his biggest problem. He was absolutely nowhere to be seen for Atalanta’s opening goal, having pushed way too high up the pitch, allowing Davide Zappacosta acres of space from which to cross for Scamacca.
And after giving the ball away once more, Tsimikas was somehow even more glaringly at fault just before the break as Kelleher flew out to smother an effort from Teun Koopmeiners. Klopp asks a lot of his full-backs going forward, but Tsimikas’ positioning was suicidal in the first half. The Liverpool boss was seen sprinting down the tunnel at half-time and he made a triple substitution at the break, one of which saw Tsimikas taken off.
Kelleher is human
Kelleher has been so assured and impressive this season when standing in for Alisson that it has been easy to forget about the consistency of the Brazilian No.1. The Irishman has generally been calm, reliable and a fantastic reader of the game. We saw those traits in the first half, but we also saw a sloppy and completely avoidable mistake.
Scamacca’s effort was bobbled into the ground and should have been comfortably stopped, yet Kelleher somehow didn’t get down in time. He probably would have preferred one of Atalanta’s other great chances to have gone in instead, but he saved superbly from Mario Pasalic with his face and from Koopmeiners with his body.
Scamacca the unlikely hero
Gianluca Scamacca didn’t make much of an impression at West Ham after they paid £35.5million for his services from Sassuolo in July 2022. He was signed on a five-year contract after netting 16 goals in 36 Serie A appearances in 2021/22 for Sassuolo.
He got eight goals in 27 games for the Hammers and was sold back to Italy for a £10m loss a year later, consigned to the scrap heap of failed West Ham strikers, with reports of his PlayStation addiction hampering his career. Yet Atalanta clearly knew what they were doing because he was a thorn in Liverpool’s side.
His first goal was fortunate, owing more to Kelleher’s mistake than anything. But his second was a clean sign of talent: a casual side-foot half-volley into the corner to put the Italian side 2-0 up. Scamacca scored in both legs against Sporting Lisbon in the previous round and could prove the difference in this tie too.
Klopp powerless
If all goes wrong from here in the second leg, this will have been Klopp's final European match at Anfield. The end of his era deserved better from his side, who were imprecise, panicky and sloppy. Klopp summoned the troops at half-time, bringing on Robertson, Salah and Szoboszlai, while Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota were also brought on, but it was no good.
Liverpool's substitutes have been so effective this season. They have frequently turned games upside down and helped the Reds come from behind to win. That never-say-die attitude is an undoubted strength of Klopp's Liverpool. Yet it failed to emerge this time around as Atalanta held firm and took home a famous win.
His frustration was clear when, in the 78th minute, Joe Gomez stepped forward an attempted a worldie from 25 yards, only to sky his effort way over the bar. The Anfield crowd groaned and Klopp screamed at his defender.
Sloppy at both ends
The ease with which Atalanta scored three goals was astonishing. Zappacosta had an age to set up Scamacca's first, while the Italian striker was completely unmarked for his second. He was the architect of the third, threading a through ball in for Emerson, whose shot was parried by Kelleher to Pasalic.
The offside checks for the last two goals showed just how gaping the holes were in Liverpool's defence - a defence marshalled by Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate. Liverpool had all their big guns on the pitch at the end, bar Trent Alexander-Arnold. And they were well beaten.
Nunez wasn't the only one off the pace at the top end of the pitch. Salah shouldn't have been offside for his goal. Jota headed over. Cody Gakpo was ineffective. And now they have a mountain to climb in Italy.
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