Scamacca scored twice against Liverpool. (Photo: Reuters)
Liverpool rotated their squad and failed to exert their usual pressure at Anfield. The home side were also unlucky against Atalanta when Harvey Elliott hit the crossbar and then the post in the 26th minute.
On the contrary, Atalanta played an annoying game and made Anfield silent when they opened the score in the 38th minute. Davide Zappacosta escaped down the right wing and passed back to Gianluca Scamacca to shoot into Liverpool's net.
In the second half, coach Jurgen Klopp sent key players such as Mohamed Salah, Andrew Robertson, Dominik Szoboszlai and Luis Diaz onto the field. However, Liverpool had a match to forget when they conceded two more goals.
Gianluca Scamacca completed his double and doubled Atalanta's lead in the 60th minute. Mario Pasalic sealed a 3-0 win for the visitors in the 83rd minute after a mistake by Dominik Szoboszlai.
Losing 0-3 at Anfield in the first leg, Liverpool suffered a heavy blow to their Europa League ambitions. Meanwhile, Atalanta holds a big advantage ahead of the second leg of the quarter-finals in Italy.
Pasalic sealed a 3-0 win for Atalanta against Liverpool. (Photo: Reuters)
Leverkusen beat West Ham 2-0. (Photo: Reuters)
AS Roma defeated AC Milan 1-0. (Photo: Reuters)
Benfica beat Marseille 2-1. (Photo: Reuters)
At the same time Liverpool suffered a shocking 0-3 defeat to Atalanta, West Ham suffered a 0-2 defeat at Leverkusen. The Premier League is facing the risk of having no team reach the semi-finals of the Europa League this season.
West Ham only had 1 shot in this match and suffered 33 shots from Leverkusen. Coach Xabi Alonso made his mark with his ability to make cool substitutions, when Jonas Hofmann and Victor Boniface came off the bench and scored for the home team in the 83rd and 90+1 minutes respectively.
In the remaining two Europa League quarter-final first leg matches, AS Roma won 1-0 despite having to visit AC Milan thanks to the only goal of Gianluca Mancini, Benfica took the advantage when defeating Marseille 2-1 at home.
The second leg of the Europa League quarter-finals will take place at 02:00 on March 19, Vietnam time.
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