Competing on Friday (12/4/2024), the star of La Dea’s victory was Italian national team striker Gianluca Scamacca. Scamacca scored two goals in the 38′ and 60′ minutes. His action in the 83rd minute in destroying Liverpool’s defense allowed Mario Pasalic to score the third goal for Gian Piero Gasperini’s squad.
This result makes Liverpool’s struggle to chase the treble feel tough for the rest of the season. Last week they just got overthrown by Arsenal from the top of the Premier League standings after drawing with Manchester United.
Want to qualify for the UEL semifinals, the Reds must be able to overturn this three-goal deficit in Bergamo, in the second leg which will be held Friday (19/4/2024).
Mohamed Salah cs actually still controlled the game with ball control reaching 71%, and more shots than Atalanta (19:11). However, they experienced a drop in performance on all fronts.
The defense was in disarray, causing Caoimhin Kelleher to receive 7 shots on goal throughout the match. On the other hand, Liverpool’s attack line was not effective enough with only 5 shots on goal from their 19 attempts.
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Fans of The Reds are certainly wondering what happened to their favorite team. Likewise, the opponents will certainly analyze this match to find the Reds’ weak points.
In the press conference before last night’s match, Jurgen Klopp gave an interesting statement regarding his preparations for facing Atalanta. He, who met La Dea in the 2020/2021 UEFA Champions League (UCL) season, said that Gasperini’s team had not changed their style of play.
“Atalanta are tricky, we’ve played them [before]. Now I haven’t watched them 500 times since then, but still with the same manager, I’m pretty sure the structure is similar – which means not comfortable to play against, very well organised,” said Klopp was quoted from the Liverpool website.
The statement contains ambiguity, whether he has full respect for Atalanta, or even looks down on Atalanta by considering them to be making no progress. It’s quite ironic, because in the UCL group phase, Liverpool had to lose 0-2 at Anfield.
If heard by the Atalanta squad, Klopp’s words will ignite the enthusiasm of the team which is currently in 6th place in Serie A. Liverpool’s focus is quite divided, because last night’s match was three days apart from the schedule against Crystal Palace in the league, Sunday (14/4/2024). Therefore, Jurgen Klopp rotated while still using his flagship 4-3-3 gegenpressing standard.
Kelleher remained a mainstay in goal, assisted by the quartet of Joe Gomez, Ibrahima Konate, Virgil van Dijk and Kostas Tsimikas. Seeing very experienced names, but tonight they looked mediocre compared to when Conor Bradley and Jarell Quansah were there.
Wataru Endo and Alexis Mac Allister were accompanied by Curtis Jones in midfield. Meanwhile, for the attacking trio, Klopp installed Harvey Elliott, Cody Gakpo and Darwin Nunez.
The visiting team used a 3-4-1-2 formation which seemed to have been well prepared by Gian Piero Gasperini. This was proven by the fact that he only made one substitution throughout the match.
Juan Musso became the main goalkeeper replacing Marco Carnesecchi who was often a mainstay in the league. The weight of Djimsiti, Isak Hien and Marten de Roon became three solid walls at the back. It’s quite interesting, because De Roon’s original position is as a midfielder.
The middle four are filled by Matteo Rugeri, Mario Pasalic, Ederson and Davide Zappacosta. Teun Koopmeiners, who is being targeted by Liverpool next season, is the trequartista behind Charles De Katelaere with Gianluca Scamacca.
Atalanta’s handicap in this match was a bad result at the beginning of April. They lost twice, namely to Fiorentina (0-1, Coppa Italia) and Cagliari (1-2, Serie A). The Reds started the match awkwardly, and Atalanta almost took advantage of it to score a quick goal. Luckily, Pasalic’s shot, which was facing Kelleher, hit the Republic of Ireland goalkeeper’s head.
Liverpool started to take control of the game after that, with the best chance going to Harvey Elliott. His curling shot still hit the crossbar in Musso’s goal, and the ball returned to the playing field before being saved by Isak Hien.
Atalanta scores a goal in the 38th minute! Davide Zappacosta escaped Tsimikas’ control on the right. He easily gave a bait which was completed by Scamacca. The ball wasn’t actually hard, but Kelleher made a mistake this time after failing to catch it. There is hesitation between whether he wants to catch or punch the ball.
In the second half, Klopp immediately played Mohamed Salah, Andrew Robertson plus Dominik Szoboszlai to replace Elliott, Tsimikas and Curtis Jones. It seems that the German manager is aware that there is a missing connection between his team.
It looked quite successful with Mohamed Salah’s chance in the 55th minute still being pushed over by Juan Musso. The Anfield public has enthusiasm again that their team will make a comeback, but Atalanta is not the same as Klopp thinks.
They have creative players like De Katelaere, who was able to provide the perfect pass to Scamacca for Atalanta’s second goal! In the 60th minute, Liverpool’s left side leaked again. De Katelaere successfully provided a cross to Scamacca who was completely unguarded by Konate or Joe Gomez.
What an elementary mistake from the Reds defense! There is mutual distrust between them so that the space is very open for Scamacca to score his brace in this match.
Liverpool’s burn-out really showed in the 83′ minute! The five Reds players only watched when Scamacca made a trick as if he was going to shoot the ball. However, the Italian striker actually made a breakthrough pass to Ederson who was free and only had to face the Liverpool goalkeeper.
The Brazilian’s shot was saved by Kelleher, but Mario Pasalic missed the ball to end Liverpool’s darkest night at Anfield this season.
There are players of the caliber of Van Dijk, Konate, Joe Gomez, Robertson and Szoboszlai who should be able to guard the movements of the three La Dea players who played a role in the goal. But everyone was looking at the ball, sure Scamacca was going to kick it. Really poor defending for the Reds tonight.
What about the front line? Exactly the same when facing Manchester United last week. Repeated attempts are made, only a few are on target. Accuracy is a point that Klopp must immediately improve in the remainder of the season.
It seems that Liverpool fans will have more confidence in their young defense compared to players of the caliber of Konate and Joe Gomez. This must be Klopp’s attention to immediately synergize the stars who have just returned from injury, to have the same rhythm. The movements of Konate, Gomez and Tsimikas looked very slow.
In the other three UEL quarter-final matches, there were surprises that occurred at the San Siro. AC Milan had to defeat AS Roma 0-1 through Gianluca Mancini’s single goal. This is a feat in itself for Daniele De Rossi, who can maintain the level of the team that last season was the finalist in this event.
Meanwhile Bayer Leverkusen were unstoppable by West Ham at the Bay Arena. Xabi Alonso’s squad won 2-0 via goals from Jonas Hoffman and a striker who had just made a comeback from injury, Victor Boniface. With Boniface’s return, Alonso will have complete weapons again to navigate the rest of the season. Unbeaten season?
In the match in Portugal, Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang’s goal was unable to help Marseille’s 1-2 defeat to hosts Benfica. Rafa Silva and Angel Di Maria managed to score goals earlier, making the struggle for the French representatives tougher at the Velodrome next week.
ASL
