Goals: 38. Gianluca Scamacca, 60. Gianluca Scamacca, 83. Mario Pašalić
In the first quarter-final match of the Europa League, Atalanta’s players stepped up to Liverpool, who they defeated 3-0 on their turf. The hero of the attractive duel was two-goal Gianluca Scamacca, who confirmed his excellent form when he won the fourth of the last five competitive duels. The Italians thus became the first club to be beaten by Jürgen Klopp’s selection at his stadium this season. It was also the Reds’ first competitive defeat at Anfield since February 21 last year, when they lost to Real Madrid in the last 16 of the Champions League.
Liverpool fans have received two pieces of news, one good and one bad, in the last few days before kick-off in the Europa League quarter-finals. Worse was the fact that the unlucky draw at Old Trafford meant the loss of first place in the Premier League. The better one spoke about the return of a number of injured supports, led by Alisson, to training. Atalanta, already in fluctuating form demonstrated by a win in Napoli and a loss in Cagliari, were still faced by goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher.
The Irish goalkeeper scored his first successful save with a bit of luck already in the third minute, when he fantastically blocked a close-range shot from Mario Pašalič’s boot with his head. On the other side of the pitch, even Darwin Núñez did not take care of the opening goal, who, although he ran brilliantly onto a pass from Curtis Jones, finished far from the left post from the edge of the penalty area. Harvey Elliott came much closer to opening the scoring after less than half an hour of play, but his technical attack from the right side of the penalty area only bounced off the crossbar and onto the post. It wasn’t until the 38th minute that Scamacca was successful, who received an excellent pass from the right side from Davide Zappacosta in the box and sent the visiting team into a rather surprising lead with a ground shot. Teun Koopmeiners could have increased that at the end of the first half, but his shot was blocked by Kelleher after a quick run.
Home coach Klopp made three substitutions during the half-time break, and Liverpool’s offensive lineman Mohamed Salah also got on the field. The Egyptian did not linger on the turf for long and in the 56th minute he dangerously fired a shot to the left post, but Juan Musso was there in time. The revived Liverpool players, however, had to bow their heads before the skill of Charles De Ketelaer, who on the opposite side of the field found Scamacco with a perfect cross and he made no mistake with an equally successful half-volley shot. The Reds were reduced in the 79th minute, but Salah’s goal was ruled out for offside. After a poor return by the defensive players of the home team, the Lombards again took care of the third accurate hit. Although Kelleher was still able to neutralize Ederson’s shot, he was already short on Pašalich’s shot.
Atalanta thus repeated the less than four-year-old success from Anfield and proceeded to advance to the semi-finals. The rematch is scheduled for April 18.
