UEL | Atalanta 0-1 Liverpool: Gasp knocks Klopp out

Football Italia

·18 April 2024

UEL | Atalanta 0-1 Liverpool: Gasp knocks Klopp out

Atalanta lost 1-0 on the night to a Mohamed Salah penalty, but knocked Liverpool out to reach their first Europa League semi-finals, 3-1 on aggregate.

The huge 3-0 first leg triumph at Anfield gave La Dea the advantage and although Giorgio Scalvini was still out, Sead Kolasinac returned from injury. Jurgen Klopp made the trip without Stefan Bajcetic, Thiago Alcantara, Joel Matip, Conor Bradley and Ben Doak, but simply had to go all-out attack with Mohamed Salah, Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz together.

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It was a nightmare start for the hosts, as Matteo Ruggeri charged down a Trent Alexander-Arnold cross with his arm just inside the penalty area. Mohamed Salah sent Juan Musso the wrong way to convert and give Liverpool an early lead.

The Reds kept pushing, Musso rushing off his line to deny Luis Diaz and Szoboszlai testing the goalkeeper from distance, but when Alisson Becker made a stunning save to prevent an own goal, the offside flag was already up.

Aleksei Miranchuk forced Alisson to rush out with a heavy touch, then flashed an angled drive across the face of goal, while Berat Djimsiti made a decisive tackle to stop Salah going clear and then the Egyptian got his lob all wrong from a Gakpo assist.

Teun Koopmeiners had the ball in the net on 41 minutes, but only after the offside flag had gone up.

Isak Hien was booked for handling a long ball over the top with Diaz clear, though Liverpool wanted a red card for stopping a clear scoring opportunity.

Ederson scuffed into the arms of Alisson after a promising move, with Teun Koopmeiners and Davide Zappacosta doing the same, as Atalanta started to make the most of the spaces left as Liverpool attacked.

Zappacosta turned Robertson with a cheeky flick and sprinted forward to set up Scamacca, who ballooned over the bar. It proved enough to secure their since the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1988.