Prediction: Liverpool vs Atalanta

Verdict: Both teams to score

Best odds: 8/11

Bookmaker: Betfair

Liverpool will face their hardest challenge to date in the Europa League in the form of Atalanta, whom they face in the quarterfinals of UEFA’s second-string competition. The first leg of the tie will take place at Anfield on Thursday evening.

While the Reds tore Sparta Prague in the round of 16, Atalanta got to this stage by edging out Sporting Lisbon, whose head coach Ruben Amorim is being heavily linked with Liverpool as Jurgen Klopp prepares to leave Merseyside at the end of the season.

Liverpool

Some of Liverpool’s forays away from home in the Europa League this term weren’t great, but their finish at the top of the group containing LASK, Union Saint-Gilloise and Toulouse was never really in question, which means they didn’t have to navigate a potentially risky play-off tie against a team dropped into the competition from the Champions League.

The start of Liverpool’s game against Sparta in Prague may have been underwhelming, bordering on concerning, but they eventually took a 5-1 lead back to Anfield where they did even better, winning rather emphatically by 6-1.

In that game, Liverpool were 4-0 up within 14 minutes from kick-off, setting a Europa League record and rubber-stamping their place in the quarterfinals. Naturally, they don’t intend to stop here – to go on and win the trophy is their aim.

Since their convincing triumph in the Europa League round of 16, the Merseysiders suffered a double dose of disappointment when facing Manchester United, both times at Old Trafford. First their arch-rivals knocked them out of the FA Cup, destroying their hopes of a quadruple, and then they forced them to drop two potentially crucial points in the Premier League title race, enabling Arsenal to take control of the situation at the top of the table.

Klopp and his team will surely see the Atalanta clash as an opportunity to show a strong response.

Team News

Liverpool have gone through numerous injury problems recently. Joel Matip and Thiago Alcantara aren’t expected to play again this season, and perhaps they’ll never play for Liverpool again with their contracts expiring in June. It’ll be some time before Ben Doak and Stefan Bajcetic return to action, though the latter is said to be getting closer each day.

This game comes too early for Alisson Becker as well, and though Trent Alexander-Arnold and Diogo Jota are back in training after overcoming different injury issues, it remains to be seen if either of them will make the squad against Atalanta.

Klopp is likely to make a few changes from the team that started at Old Trafford on Sunday, with Cody Gakpo being the likeliest one to get promoted from the bench into the starting XI. Jarell Quansah, whose mistake proved very costly against United, will probably be given a chance of redemption on Thursday.

Atalanta

Having already disposed of Amorim and his Sporting, Atalanta will now aim to ruin things for his potential future employers and Klopp’s final months at Anfield as well.

Having drawn 1-1 in Lisbon in the first leg of the round of 16, Gian Piero Gasperini’s team went down at home to Pedro Goncalves’ 33rd-minute opener. However, Ademola Lookman, who will have a special motive at Anfield as a former Everton player, equalized in the first minute of the second half, and former West Ham man Gianluca Scamacca set the final score at 2-1 just before the hour mark.

Atalanta followed that success by thumping reigning Serie A champions Napoli 3-0 away, but then they lost the first leg of the Coppa Italia semifinal away to Fiorentina by 1-0, and suffered an extremely disappointing league defeat away to Cagliari, which left them in sixth place, five points behind AS Roma directly above.

La Dea will try to recall the last time they visited Anfield, back in the group stage of the 2020/21 Champions League campaign, when they won 2-0, though they had previously lost 0-5 to Liverpool at home.

Team News

Defender Giorgio Scalvini will be absent through injury. Charles De Ketelaere has recovered from an issue of his own, though he’ll probably have to settle for a place on the bench with Aleksey Miranchuk and Liverpool-linked Teun Koopmeiners firmly ahead in the pecking order.

Koopmeiners has recently confirmed he has asked to leave the club at the end of the season, and if Anfield is indeed a potential destination for him, this could be a great opportunity to present himself to the Liverpool faithful.

Conclusion

Liverpool still haven’t sorted out some of their problems at the back, but their attacking approach should be enough to give them an advantage in front of the roaring Anfield crowd, even if they do concede.

Verdict: Both teams to score

Best odds: 8/11

Bookmaker: Betfair