Atalanta stun Liverpool in Klopp’s final Europa League campaign
It was just as well the protesting supporters brought no flags to Anfield. They may have been at half-mast at fulltime to signal the likely end of Jurgen Klopp’s final European adventure as Liverpool coach.
If this was Klopp’s last dance on a Uefa night on Merseyside, it was full of missteps – slow, sad and stumbling. Meek applause rather than customary fist pumps reflected the shock after the first home defeat in 34 games – a 3-0 loss to Atalanta yesterday.
Optimists will dream on and suggest Klopp’s Liverpool farewell will not be complete without a stirring European comeback. Whether they have the capacity to pull it off once more against Atalanta next week is debatable.
A fatigued, dishevelled Liverpool were ripped apart by the Italian side, who could have scored more than the three that secured a famous victory. They will back themselves to add to their tally in Bergamo.
History offers hope, of course. Klopp’s greatest scalp was against Barcelona five years ago, when his side faced the same first-leg deficit. It requires an imaginative leap to summon similarities.
On that dizzying night in the Nou Camp, the three-goal defeat was a travesty. Liverpool could believe in miracles for the return.
This time, Liverpool must retrieve a near-impossible situation amid the background of their season potentially fizzling out. This was their first game of six in 16 days – the worst possible time to look like they are running out of gas.
Their nemesis was a former West Ham striker, Gianluca Scamacca. He was cast as a misfit in East London, delivering just three goals in 16 games following a £30 million transfer. English football may have misjudged him as he scored twice here, Mario Pasalic adding the third.
For all their excellence this season, Liverpool have been concocting some imaginative moments of self-sabotage. Think of Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker’s hesitation against Arsenal, facilitating defeat in a momentum-shifting game for their title rivals.
Then there are those two trips to Old Trafford, orchestrating their loss in the FA Cup before inviting Manchester United to a ridiculous draw in last Sunday’s Premier League meeting.
If those dropped points owed a little to the inexperience of Jarell Quansah, a young player whose broader class kept Liverpool in the title hunt, their first headache here was due to Caoimhin Kelleher’s untimely error. In mitigation, but for the Irish keeper Liverpool might have been three down at halftime.
He somehow thwarted Pašalić after three minutes, getting his forehead in the way of what looked like a certain goal. He also dashed from his line to prevent Teun Koopmeiners ushering in the catastrophic outcome sooner.
Kelleher will not shy away from culpability for the goal which had Liverpool chasing the game on 38 minutes, Scamacca seeing a decent but saveable attempt dribble under the keeper.
If such defensive generosity has become too frequent, so has carelessness at the opposite end. One could be forgiven for believing Liverpool are indulging in a bizarre experiment whereby they establish how many attempts are necessary before scoring.
Darwin Nunez was one of the culprits again, the Uruguayan having regressed in recent weeks to the player who oscillates between the extraordinary and infuriating.
He was gifted an opening by a gorgeous Curtis Jones pass, but, rather than administer the easy finish over an advancing keeper, he naturally chose a more elaborate chip, miskicked and saw the tame attempt drift wide.
There was more frustration when Harvey Elliott’s attempt ricocheted off the frame of the crossbar and post before bouncing to safety.
Klopp’s team selection kept the cavalry on the bench. When he summoned Mohamed Salah, Dominik Szoboszlai and Luis Diaz it was too late.
Meanwhile, after 83 minutes of resistance, West Ham were finally broken down by Germany’s “Invincibles”, who have still not lost a game this season and took a huge stride towards the Europa League semifinals after late strikes from Jonas Hofmann and Victor Boniface.
David Moyes’ players put their bodies on the line to keep out Bayer Leverkusen for so long, with Lukasz Fabianski pulling off a series of saves to deny the Bundesliga champions-in-waiting until their two match-winners came off the bench.
It was not until a corner was not cleared and Hofmann struck through a crowd of players that the crowd at BayArena could start celebrating. They have swept aside all in front of them this season, including Bayern Munich in a 3-0 win here, but it was a battle to get past West Ham.
Xabi Alonso punched the air in relief at breaking the deadlock, then celebrated the second in stoppage time when Boniface glanced in a header from Hofmann’s cross.