Liverpool are currently odds-on favourite to win the Europa League in Jurgen Klopp’s final season at Anfield, but they’ll face a tough task in the quarter-final when they face Atalanta over two legs.
The Reds are still embroiled in a title race in the Premier League, but now that we are in the business end of the Europa League, too, the German will field a strong team to try and reach the semi-final stage.
Atalanta still hold slim hopes of qualifying for the Champions League via a top four spot in Serie A, but they’ll fancy their chances of at least giving Liverpool plenty of problems in the Europa League to try and earn some European glory.
Current Form
Liverpool Current Form
Liverpool have struggled to get the better of Manchester United in two games recently and one saw them eliminated from the FA Cup, while the other at the weekend put a dent in their Premier League title hopes.
The Reds twice had to come from behind to earn a 2-2 draw at Old Trafford at the weekend, with a Mohamed Salah penalty in the 84th minute snatching a point for Klopp’s men.
Prior to that game, they won two in a row versus Brighton and Sheffield United.
Atalanta Current Form
Atalanta have been the victim of two damaging losses recently.
A week ago they were eliminated from the Coppa Italia after a 1-0 defeat to Fiorentina, while in league duties at the weekend they lost 2-1 to Cagliari.
They are currently sixth in Serie A, eight points adrift of the top four, though they do have a game in hand over their closest rivals in the race for the final Champions League spot.
Liverpool are missing no less than seven key first-team players – Alisson, Diogo Jota, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joel Matip, Thiago Alcantara, Ben Doak and Stefan Bajcetic.
Alisson, Jota and Alexander-Arnold are expected to return to full training this week, but the Atalanta game will probably come too early for all of them.
Atalanta have one major injury to contend with and unfortunately for the Italian side it is to one of their best…
Source link : https://www.footballcritic.com/news/liverpool-vs-atalanta-prediction-team-to-win-form-news-and-more-11-04-2024/4319
Author : editors@footballcritic.com (Martin Macdonald)
Publish date : 2024-04-10 10:20:50
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