Jurgen Klopp aimed a furious blast at Joe Gomez after he opted to a shot on goal when he had other options against Atalanta
Liverpool faced humiliation at home by the Italian outfit, who won 3-0 in the first-leg of their Europa League quarter-final. Liverpool were 1-0 down at half-time before Atalanta scored twice in the second-half. As a result, Gomez faced the anger of his manager on the touchline.
The defender had possession 25 yards out in the second period. Despite having better options available, opted to shoot from a distance with his doing little to help Liverpool’s cause. Klopp lamented Gomez and appeared furious on the touchline as he showed his emotions on what was an underwhelming night on Merseyside.
Liverpool were the favourites to claim the Europa League before the game, but now face a mammoth task in overturning the deficit when they head to Italy for the return leg.
Former West Ham forward Gianluca Scamacca, who failed to cut it at the London Stadium, scored two of Atalanta’s three. He finished smartly for both goals, scoring his second as the Liverpool defence failed to spot his run, leaving him with an alarming amount of space in the box.
Mario Pasalic, once of Chelsea, notched a late third in front of the travelling Atalanta fans. He was able to tap home after Caoimhin Kelleher had saved Ederson’s original efforts, but was powerless to prevent the visitors from extending their lead.
Virgil van Dijk said: “Defeat, obviously it is half-time and we’re 3-0 down which is not great. Too many individual mistakes and we got punished for it. I think with the man marking system they do we have to do much better, keep the ball longer, they won all the 50-50s and the spaces were too open”.
“It is a very disappointing night for us but we can’t dwell on it for too long because we have another game in two days.” The defender added: “If we don’t have belief there’s no point going there (to Italy).”
Liverpool have shown themselves capable of overturning bid deficits in Europe, doing so famously in 2019 against Barcelona. However, this time they won’t have the advantage of Anfield and will need to produce a huge performance in Bergamo next week.