Liverpool managed surprisingly easily with his home Atalanta, who scored five goals unequivocally and without mercy! On the contrary, he did not get a single one and kept a clean sheet even in the third duel in a row.
Contrary to the original assumptions, manager Jürgen Klopp sent a very strong line-up into the game, which included names such as Salah, Jota, Mané or Henderson with Wijnaldum. Even Atalanta did not just want to watch the match from the position of an inexperienced outsider and flew into the match with Muriel, Zapata, Gómez or Pasalič. According to pre-match forecasts, it was supposed to be a captivating match full of chances.
In the end, however, it was more of a one-sided affair. And not in favor of Atalanta. On the contrary. In the second minute, Liverpool made himself known for the first time. Curtis Jones beautifully pulled out the wingman Diogo Jota, who rushed alone at Sportiello, but in the end did not overcome him from close range. In any case, the Reds surprised Atalanta with a compact, simple game from the opening minutes, which had catastrophic consequences for La Dea players.
They first appeared after sixteen minutes, when Diogo Jota fled the defense of Orobici, received a beautiful pass from Trent Alexander-Arnold and he still had enough time and a scorpion to cross the running goalkeeper Sportiella with a gentle bend – 1: 0.
Of course, Atalanta tried to catch up enormously, but today she failed at all in the offensive phase that Klopp’s manager praised so much. Muriel’s blow was tamed more than twice by goalkeeper Alisson, Gómez’s attempt caught the Brazilian goalkeeper with an overview. Just as the home team was breathing into the onslaught, a visit from the Beatles struck again. It was written in the 33rd minute when the Portuguese Diogo Jota ran into the lime on his pass from Gomez and processed it. Lately, practically everything he touches has been coming out of it, and today it was no different. Sportiello couldn’t have had his hard blow by any chance.
A few minutes later, Sadio Mané also wanted to contribute a little to the mill, but the Sportiello goalkeeper pulled a luxury intervention against him and kicked his blow with his fingertips. The Atalanta players probably still felt in the locker room that they could do something with this result with a little luck. But they didn’t quite manage to enter the second half, which was finally decided.
Just two minutes after the change of sides, Liverpool defended the corner and the ball reached Mohamed Salah via Jones. And that’s damn hard to catch, which Atalanta knows a long time ago. She didn’t make it this time either, Salah spread Atalanta’s defense on bread and shot the goalkeeper Sportiella with a technical blow. To keep Atalanta from recovering so quickly, Liverpool dealt her another quick blow. Just two minutes later, the Reds showed another quick counter, this time Momo Salah called for Sadio Mané to score and he was no longer wrong – 4: 0.
And basically it was after the match. The favorite clearly dominated, La Dea’s defense was virtually non-existent and only one team actually played. Atalanta’s quarterbacks did not pursue the Liverpool attacks at all and acted as students watching the master in astonishment. Ten minutes after the change of sides, Mané pushed out the express Jota, who bypassed the goalkeeper Sportiello and easily ended up in an abandoned goal, although he was chased by two home defenders.
His first hat-trick in Reds drew a huge disgrace for an ambitious Italian squadron. After an hour of play, even the home Duván Zapata did not lose his bad luck, whose shot bounced off the line out of the goal. A moment later, the Colombian gunner tried the goalkeeper Alisson again, but he did not beat him with another shot from an angle. And he didn’t succeed in the last ten minutes. Momo Salah did not succeed in it either, this time the goalkeeper Sportiello fulfilled his task perfectly and eliminated the lone shooter.
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