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– Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only) Atalanta, who had been mauled 5-0 by Liverpool in Italy, took full advantage, punishing the hosts ‘ carelessness with two goals in four minutes after the break.
Though Liverpool still lead the group on nine points, both Atalanta and Ajax Amsterdam, who beat bottom side Midtjylland 3-1, are nowadays two points behind with two games left to play. “ My lone sake at the moment is that we got the thumbs-up, cipher injured, recover immediately … the boys are completely disappoint, thwart, but actually, we do n’t have clock time for it, to be honest, just get fresh legs a quick as potential and go again, ” Klopp told BT Sport. The german welcomed back egyptian advancing Mohamed Salah, who had missed their Premier League gain over Leicester City after testing positive for COVID-19 while on external duty, but besides fielded three teenagers in a much-changed side. Rhys Williams and Neco Williams were deployed in defense with boyfriend 19-year-old Curtis Jones fair in front of them, and Atalanta exploited their miss of experience early on on to create several half-chances in the open 45 minutes.
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Atalanta were far better in defense than they had been when Liverpool took them apart in their previous Champions League excursion. The hosts, meanwhile, struggled to get the ball up to their attacking trio of Salah, Sadio Mane and Divock Origi, and it took until the 44th hour for Salah to threaten with a shoot that flew just wide. Klopp looked set to reshuffle his tamp down on the hour commemorate by bringing on Roberto Firmino, Fabinho, Diogo Jota and Andy Robertson, but his side went behind before he could make the switches as Ilicic scored with a deft volley from an inswinging cross from Alejandro Gomez.
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Liverpool made their changes but they were soon two goals down as Gosens was left overlooked to volley home Hans Hateboer ‘s knockdown from finale range in the 63rd minute. With their attack still misfiring, Liverpool could not rebound though a Atalanta became the first italian side to win at Anfield since Udinese in the Europa League in October 2012. “ We had a great game tonight, we managed to play our football, ” Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini told italian television. “ We played better this prison term and we played choice football vitamin a well as being solid throughout. ”