Liverpool suffered a 3-0 defeat to Atalanta in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League quarter-final on Thursday night.
UEFA Europa League
Report: Liverpool 0-3 Atalanta
Date: 11 April 2024
Venue: Anfield
Reds manager Jurgen Klopp rang the changes from the draw with Manchester United, as Joe Gomez, Ibrahim Konate, Kostas Tsimikas, Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott and Cody Gakpo were all handed starts.
The home side dominated from the onset and should have been ahead on 15 minutes when Jones played Darwin Nunez through on goal, but the Uruguayan striker failed to beat goalkeeper Juan Musso.
The Reds went agonisingly close to breaking the deadlock on 27 minutes when Harvy Elliot was given time and space to unleash a strike that crash against the woodwork.
Liverpool's failure to take advantage of their dominance came back ot haunt them after Atalanta broke the deadlock seven minutes before the interval through Gianluca Scamacca's first-time finish from Davide Zappacosta.
Klopp responded with a triple change at the start of the second half, with Mohamed Salah, Andrew Robertson and Dominik Szoboszlai replacing Elliot, Tsimikas and Jones.
However, the Serie A outfit doubled their lead on the hour mark as Charles De Ketelaere broke free down the right and picked out an un-marked Scamacca, who completed his brace with a lovely left-footed finish.
Liverpool had the ball in the back of the net with 11 minutes to go when Salah slotted home from close range, but the celebrations were cut short due to an offside
Two minutes later, Atalanta went on to bag a third goal in the tie when Mario Pašalic pounced on a rebound in the box and fired home after some good work by Teun Koopmeiners in the build-up.
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