Europa League; Liverpool takes the L against Atalanta

Liverpool's thursday night football continues as we got to play our first leg in the quarterfinals of Europa League. The game was played tonight in Anfield and it was really good to see the return of Trent, Jota, Bajetic and a bunch of other names to Liverpool's team sheet.

Liverpool had a shocking opening and almost gifted a goal to Atalanta. Kelleher stepped up as usual and saved liverpool. He's been a phenomenal backup for us and it's good to know that Alisson is already back in training. This will help tighten Liverpool's squad.

Gakpo haven't been convincing for a very long time. But he drilled that left-wing position like a new signing. His performance felt like that of a man on a mission. If he has been showing this sort of energy since this year, it would have made him a sure name in Liverpool's starting line-up.

Liverpool created an insane amount of chances in this half of the game. That shot from Elliot that rebounded from the woodwork felt electric. Nunez also had his moments. However, we couldn't make anything out of those chances. Atalanta got a half chance in the 37th minute and got themselves on the score sheet. What a shame for Liverpool!

The stats from the first half of this game gives a very good detail of what has been wrong with Liverpool since last month. We create a lot of chances but fail to convert most of them to goal. In addition to that, we allow silly mistakes at the back to stop us from keeping clean sheet in games.

Second Half...

The second half of the game unsurprisingly kicked off with triple change for Liverpool. Salah, Robbo and Szobo got subbed into the game. Now, it's an all-out affair. Liverpool can't afford to not get back into a favorable position in this first leg of the game.

Second half started exactly like the first half. Loads of chances were getting created by Liverpool and this time around, we were creating chances with higher goalscoring opportunity. Yet, we couldn't score a goal even if our life depended on it. Of course, the ball fell on Atalanta and they didn't waste their chance. They got their second goal in the 60th minute of the game. Scamacca was having an insane laugh at Liverpool.

Liverpool managed to get a goal in the 79th minute but the goal quickly got ruled out for offside. The offside was clear as day but it felt good to get that. Lol. With 10 minutes remaining, Liverpool unsuccessfully tried to do whatever it takes to reduce the odds which are already against them.

All hell got let loose as Szobo committed an error that led to a counter-attacking play from Atalanta. Kelleher did his best and made a quick save. However, the rebound found it's way to Atalanta and they served Liverpool a sour punishment.

Going into the second leg of an European tournament with 3 goals deficit isn't an ideal position to be in. I remember we had similar situation against Barcelona and came out successfully. But, that was years ago. I wonder how the second leg of this fixture will turn out.

Thanks For Not Missing Any Full-stop or Comma.
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