Liverpool suffered a heavy 0-3 defeat at home at Anfield in the Europa League quarter-final first leg against Atalanta. With a squad of 6 positions changed after the draw with MU, Liverpool played very weakly and by the time Atalanta scored the third goal, many Liverpool spectators left early.
Coach Jurgen Klopp
Coach Jurgen Klopp could not hide his disappointment in the post-match interview. “My God, what a terrible game,” he said. We started off well but then couldn’t do anything more. Even before they scored I could see we were starting to fall apart. The squad was stretched, the midfielders were running around without any intention, I didn’t recognize anything anymore. Congratulations Atalanta”.
However, Klopp affirmed that he did not regret changing so many positions, that this weekend’s match against Crystal Palace in the Premier League is equally important to Liverpool because the Premier League championship race is extremely fierce.
“A loss is a loss, I’m not saying the changes made us lose. But if we want to play well consistently during the season, we must make changes to give the players a break. I take responsibility for this result, but my decision to change positions will not change if we are allowed to replay this match,” he emphasized.
Captain midfielder Virgil Van Dijk is not happy with the mistakes of the defense he commands, but affirms that the opportunity to go upstream is still there. “Too many individual mistakes and we were punished. With their man-marking system, we didn’t play well. When they had the ball, they immediately had space to attack,” Van Dijk commented.
Hojlund celebrated his former club’s victory on Instagram
“But now is not the time to be heartbroken over the result, we have to return to focus on the next match. And in the return leg we can still score 3 or 4 goals in Italy. If you don’t have confidence, it’s best not to bother going there.”
After the match, MU striker Rasmus Hojlund celebrated the victory of Atalanta, the old club where he made his name before going to England to play. The Danish striker posted on Instagram a photo of his former team winning with the message “Mola mia”, a Bergamo dialect meaning “Don’t give up”.
