(Football news) The Reds defeated Sporting Lisbon, whose head coach seemed destined to take over the Merseyside reins for 2024–25, while Gian Piero Gasperini’s team defeated Sparta Prague with an incredible 11 goals in the last 16 to get to the quarterfinals.
Liverpool’s first-place group stage finish was never in doubt, even though a few of their Europa League trips away from Anfield left something to be desired. The Reds avoided a difficult playoff matchup with a former Champions League contender and advanced directly to the round of 16.
Despite coming under the cosh in the first leg of their knockout contest with Sparta Prague, Klopp’s men taught the Czech champions a lesson in ruthlessness with a 5-1 romping away from home, before blowing their foes to smithereens in the Anfield return fixture with an even more emphatic 6-1 success.
Four of Liverpool’s goals on that evening were struck in the opening 14 minutes – no side had ever surged into a 4-0 lead as early in a Europa League contest – and the Reds have been rewarded with a third quarter-final appearance in the competition; they progressed from both of their previous two.
However, since they last stood side by side while listening to the continental anthem, Liverpool have been subjected to two doses of Manchester United-inflicted misery – after seeing their quadruple dreams dashed in the FA Cup quarter-finals, a 2-2 Premier League draw on Sunday left them below new leaders Arsenal on goal difference.
Liverpool’s commitment to attacking remains alive and well in the closing stages of Klopp’s reign, though – they have scored at least twice in each of their last five games in all tournaments – and the hosts are now out to become just the second team to score at least four goals in five separate UEFA Cup/Europa League contests in a single season, emulating 1964-65 Benfica.
Bidding to extinguish Klopp’s hopes of one last continental hurrah are the team who eliminated the side led by the German’s expected successor, Ruben Amorim, as Atalanta left Sporting Lisbon’s turf with a creditable 1-1 draw before doing it the hard way at the Gewiss Stadium in the second leg.
Pedro Goncalves’s first-half strike put Sporting in the driver’s seat, but Ademola Lookman and Gianluca Scamacca – two men familiar to those of a Premier League persuasion – saved Atalanta’s Europa League bacon, sending La Dea through to their third European quarter-final in their last five seasons.
However, the previous two both ended in disappointment for Gasperini’s charges, who lost to Paris Saint-Germain at this point in the 2019-20 Champions League and RB Leipzig in the Europa League two seasons ago, and Thursday’s visitors do not arrive at Anfield with the wind in their sails.
Following the second-leg victory over Sporting, La Dea defeated struggling champions Napoli 3-0 in Serie A. However, Fiorentina eliminated La Dea from the Coppa Italia, and on Sunday, they suffered a depressing 2-1 loss away at Cagliari in the top flight, dropping them to sixth place in the rankings and eight points outside the top four.
Despite being praised for their lively attacking approach under Gasperini, Atalanta’s abilities have recently failed them; in nine games across all competitions, they have only won twice. Nevertheless, La Dea defeated their opponents 2-0 at Anfield in the 2020–21 Champions League group stage, albeit only after suffering a humiliating 5-0 home loss.
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