Atalanta vs Liverpool Prediction and Betting Tips: 9/4 and 11/2 shouts for Thursday's second leg
With another European mountain to climb, history tells us never to count out Liverpool, but overcoming a 3-0 deficit endured from last week's Europa League quarter-final first leg with Atalanta will be right up there with Jurgen Klopp's most difficult obstacles in his nine-year tenure as the Liverpool boss.
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The highlight of Atalanta's season so far came in this first meeting last Thursday when not only handing out an unforeseen defeat to Liverpool at Anfield, but doing so in emphatic fashion. Champions League qualification is still a possibility for Gian Piero Gasperini's men, although the emphasis will be solely on navigating through to this competition's semi-final stages first.
Things have just gone from bad to worse for The Reds recently, who've now suffered back-to-back defeats and are without a win in their last three. They make the trip to Italy with the seemingly insurmountable task for most of turning around a 3-0 scoreline, but this is Liverpool in a European competition after all, so anything remains possible.
Atalanta vs Liverpool Tips
Gianluca Scamacca was the game's hero in this pair's first leg tie last week, netting an unexpected brace to silence the Anfield crowd and provide a three-goal buffer for his team to take back home.
The 25-year-old striker is enjoying the second-highest goalscoring season of his career since returning to his native Italy, beating the goalkeeper on 14 occasions, 5 of which have come inside seven Europa League fixtures.
More noteworthy than that is the current hot streak he's running on, scoring six in his last seven, which includes five in his last four in this competition.
Liverpool are without a clean sheet in their last nine matches and hold just two across their previous eight away trips.
The Reds will have to throw the kitchen sink at their opponents on Thursday and that should suit both Atalanta and Scamacca for carving out some opportunities and adding to their goal cushion.
Based on merit, the 11/2 for Dominik Szoboszlai to pick up a card in Bergamo is about right, if not a little short. But hear us out on why you should be all over the Hungarian to enter referee Francois Letexier's book as an overpriced selection that may have legs between now and the end of the season.
Jurgen Klopp's prescribed 'chaos creator' began his new midfield role at the end of last month in a 2-1 home win over Brighton. This new set of responsibilities for him is the perfect embodiment of the German's slightly evolved heavy metal style of football and is also a great match for the type of profile that Szoboszlai has.
The fireball midfielder, described as the surprising act of LFC's midfield in this new format, is like a dog off a leash, running around and chasing every loose ball or half measured pass, whether it's in the centre of the park or right on the goal line of the opposition's box.
It's early days for the No.8 in this new role, but he holds all of the characteristics for inspiring a famous Liverpool comeback overseas with his dogged attitude. That should see him return to the starting XI here after Curtis Jones was favoured in the defeats to Atalanta and Crystal Palace.
He might have only been issued one yellow card all season, however, he still holds the fourth-highest tally for fouls committed in the Premier League for Liverpool during his debut campaign.
On top of this, he has the third worst tackle success rate in the PL among players to have attempted 50+ during the 2023/24 campaign with an average of 47.7% - a figure you would expect to be lowered slightly this week with a full-blooded assault needed from LFC on Thursday.
At least one midfielder for Klopp's side has picked up a card in four of their last six, and based on the current outlook of this tie, plus the nature of LFC's spanking last week, we fancy that trend to continue. And we'll be hanging our hat on it being Dominik Szoboszlai.
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