NEWS. . . BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
Manchester United striker Rasmus Hojlund joined Atalanta’s celebrations following their 3-0 win over Liverpool in the Europa League on Thursday night.
Jurgen Klopp’s side were stunned at Anfield when two goals from Gianluca Scamacca and a late goal from Mario Pasalic sealed a deserved victory for the Serie A side, who now have considerable merit ahead of next week’s quarter-final second leg in Bergamo.
Hojlund, meanwhile, spent just one season with Atalanta before moving for £72m to Manchester United last summer, but the Denmark foreigner is obviously still keeping an eye on his former club.
After Atalanta’s win, Hojlund posted a photo of the team celebrating at Anfield with the words “Mola mia”, a Bergamo saying that says “never give up”.
Liverpool now have a mountain to climb if they want to continue to have any chance of ending Klopp’s final season with the treble.
Giving his verdict on Liverpool’s first defeat at Anfield since Real Madrid’s 5-2 Champions League win 14 months ago, Klopp said: “It was just a bad game, oh my God.
“So we started well, really well, and then we didn’t continue. I think even before they scored, we just lost our minds, like we were and nowhere. [The] midfield was distributed like this, the right midfielder on the left back, the left midfield, the striker. . . I didn’t recognize it, it was strange. In terms of football, it’s a tactical discipline.
“But anyway, I think we had a great chance with Darwin [Nunez], and then not with Harvey [Elliott]. Then they scored the goal and we kept betting on their game, to be honest.
“A very clever example of what it could have looked like is the goal we scored because he’s the striker, the full-back in a huge space, he comes in, he has all the time in the world, he passes the ball. “And Mo [Salah] scores the goal. Then he was offside, but that’s one thing. We’ve experienced those conditions more often.
“[We] don’t use human labeling a lot, I would say. Then Diogo [Jota] came along, we can’t use him now just because we think he’s now the solution or whatever. He also wants time, but he is. He came in and hasn’t had bad reports or anything like that for weeks and months, so he’s just satisfied to play, and you might see that replaced a lot of times.
“We played a bad game, we deserved to lose and we have to feel it now. But the lads have tonight to feel bad and then we have to prepare for the Crystal Palace game, that’s just the way it is. “
“You’re probably asking me about next Thursday’s game, but in the middle is Crystal Palace. So congratulations Atalanta, well done.
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