The manager of Atalanta, Gian Piero Gasperini, has described the club’s 2-0 victory over Liverpool football club as the “most prestigious” victory in the history of the club.
On Wednesday, November 25, 2020, Italian Serie A club, Atalanta, visited Anfield to play a UEFA Champions League group D match against Liverpool, the leaders of the group. To the surprise of most football pundits, the visitors stunned Liverpool 2-0 in the keenly contested game.
Atalanta’s Josip Ilicic opened the goalscoring chart in the 60th minute. Before Liverpool could fight back, Atalanta scored the second goal in the 64th minute through the boots of Robin Gosens.
After the match, Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini said: “Obviously this is something which will be written in the pages of history.
“They haven’t lost a Premier League game in 64 matches. This is perhaps our biggest ever victory in our history, certainly our most prestigious.
“We were more solid in defense this time around because the defense was better protected with more players in midfield. This is the solution we opted for as we thought it was appropriate for this game.”
Espugnato Anfield! 🙌
— Atalanta B.C. (@Atalanta_BC) November 25, 2020
Anfield conquered! 🤩
⠀#LiverpoolAtalanta #UCL #GoAtalantaGo ⚫️🔵 pic.twitter.com/1eA4fZcCRG
No regrets for Jurgen Klopp
The 2-0 loss is Jurgen Klopp’s heaviest defeat at Anfield since 2015 when he took over the leadership of the club. It is also the first time since 2018 that a club beat Klopp at Anfield. The last team to do that was Chelsea football club on September 26, 2018, in an EFL Cup game which ended 1-2 in favor of Chelsea.
Though he made 5 changes from the team that beat Leicester City 3-0 three days before the match, the manager said it was a deserved defeat and has no regrets over his team’s selection.
The defeat means that Liverpool will have to wait a little longer before they can secure their place in the round of 16. They are still topping the Champions League group D with 9 points.
“(We had) no real rhythm, first half was not a good game at all, they were not good as well. We spoke about it but second half it didn’t look like it (would change) and that is why we changed early.
“A second before we could change (Klopp was in the process of making a quadruple substitution) they scored the first goal, in a space which we knew they tried to use and we couldn’t defend at that moment.
“We had better football moments but not good enough. If you don’t have a shot on target that is never a good sign.”
After a defeat in the hands of Atalanta, here is the task ahead of Liverpool:
The reigning Premier League champions will have to defeat Ajax at home on December 1 to scale through to the next round of the competition. If they fail to do so, they will have to wait until their last group stage match against Midtjylland before they can secure their place in the next round. And they must win to make that happen.
Hence, to avoid the pressure of waiting until the last game of the Champions League group stage, Liverpool must win Ajax with any scoreline.
Jurgen Klopp said: “If I would think like this then it would be great. It is tricky, sounds easy to beat Ajax but with all the challenges we face in this country on top of the normal challenges we face already,” he added.
“My concern isn’t that I think about Ajax; we go in a few hours to play Brighton. When this game is over we start to think about Ajax.”
