Manchester United striker Rasmus Hojlund joined in with Atalanta’s celebrations after their 3-0 win against Liverpool in the Europa League on Thursday evening.
Jurgen Klopp’s side were stunned at Anfield as two goals Gianluca Scamacca and a late strike from Mario Pasalic sealed a deserved win for the Serie A side, who now have a commanding advantage ahead of the quarter-final second leg in Bergamo next week.
Hojlund, meanwhile, spent just a season with Atalanta before his £72 million move to Manchester United last summer but the Denmark international is clearly still keeping an eye on his former club.
Following Atalanta’s victory, Hojlund posted a picture of the team celebrating at Anfield along with the words ‘Mola mia’ – a saying in Bergamo which translates to ‘never give up’.
Liverpool now have a mountain to climb if they are to remain in with a chance to finish Klopp’s final season with the treble.
Giving his verdict on Liverpool’s first defeat at Anfield since Real Madrid won 5-2 in the Champions League 14 months ago, Klopp said: ‘It just was a really bad game, oh my god.
‘So we started well, really well, and then didn’t continue. I think even before they scored but we just lost the plot a little bit, like we were everywhere and nowhere. [The] midfield was spread like that, right midfielder left side, left midfielder, striker… I didn’t recognise that, that was really strange. In football terms that’s tactical discipline.
‘But anyhow we had a big chance I think from Darwin [Nunez] and then unlucky with Harvey [Elliott]. Then they scored the goal and then we kept playing into their hands, to be honest.
‘A really good example [of] how it could have looked is the goal we scored because that’s [the] striker wide, full-back underlap in a massive space, arrives, has all the time in the world, passes the ball and Mo [Salah] scores the goal. It was then offside but that’s one thing. We should have had these situations more often.
‘[We] didn’t use the man-marking besides that, I would say, a lot. Then Diogo [Jota] came on, we cannot use him now just because we think now he’s the solution or whatever. He needs time as well but he came on and just [had] no bad experience or whatever in the whole game for weeks and months, so just happy to play – and you could see that changed a lot.
‘We played a bad game, we deserved to lose and we must feel that now. But the boys have exactly this night to feel bad about it and then we have to build up again for the Crystal Palace game, so that’s how it is.
‘You ask me probably about the game next Thursday but there is Crystal Palace in between. So, congratulations Atalanta, really well done.’
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