NEWS. . . BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
Danny Murphy has boldly predicted that Liverpool will pull off a miraculous comeback to beat Atalanta in the Europa League.
Liverpool were the favourites to win the competition, even before a shocking 3-0 defeat at Anfield to the Serie A side in the first leg of the quarter-finals.
That leaves them with a mountain to climb in Thursday night’s game at Gewiss Stadium.
It’s been a terrible few weeks for Jurgen Klopp’s side, who have also gone from the top of the Premier League title race to third place and two problems with Manchester City after a draw at Manchester United and a loss to Crystal Palace.
With lackluster momentum in the league, it’s conceivable that Klopp will cancel the clash with Atalanta and focus his efforts on the name race, but former Liverpool star Murphy doesn’t think that’s the case.
He encourages the coach to call a strong team and make a surprise comeback, but to do so the Reds want to score from the start.
“The variety of the team [for the first leg] has been criticised and rightly so,” he told talkSPORT.
“Too many veteran players weren’t on the pitch and then he [Klopp] replaced him at half-time, so he knew his mistake, but at that point Atalanta had some momentum and it was a brave performance from them. They went there, they created chances, they took advantage of it.
“But the truth is that they suffered a home defeat that nobody expected against a team brave enough to try and I don’t think Klopp is going through to make the same mistake in terms of selection. I think it’s happening to happen. “
“I think we’re going to see chaos. I think we’re going to see Liverpool going a hundred miles an hour from the first minute and taking a big threat and looking to score the first goal. And the challenge is that with Atalanta, they’re not the kind of team that closes their doors, so it’s possible that we’ll see chaos.
Bayer Leverkusen – 5/4
Atalanta – 9/2
Rome – 6/1
Benfica – 9/1
Liverpool – 10/1
AC Milan – 12/1
Marseille – 16/1
Western Ham – 25/1
Odds courtesy of Betfair
“You know why I wouldn’t be surprised if Liverpool won?That wouldn’t be the case. I think they’ll [win], honestly, I think they will.
“That was a few years ago, but they went there and beat them five in the Champions League. [Diogo] Jota scored a hat-trick, Salah scored. These players are still there.
“They’re not a brilliant team and they’re a forward-thinking team and if Liverpool score the first goal, some of them might get a bit nervous. It’s going to be chaos.
Liverpool won the first meeting between the two teams 5-0 in November 2020 in the UCL organising phase, while Atalanta won the second leg 2-0.
And of course, the Reds have a knack for pulling off 3-0 comebacks in Europe, most notably in the 2005 Champions League final against AC Milan and in the semi-final against Barcelona in 2019 before lifting the trophy.
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