Captain Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool stated there is ‘no point’ in the team traveling to Atalanta for the second leg of their Europa League quarterfinal match If Liverpool doesn’t think it can overcome a 3-0 deficit.
After shocking the Reds on Thursday night, the Serie A team will head back to Italy for the rematch next week with a three-goal lead. Mario Pasalic completed the scoring late in the day, following goals from Gianluca Scamacca just before halftime.
See Also: Diogo Jota Blames Liverpool Midfielder For ‘Bad Performance’ At The 82nd Minute Against Atalanta
After the game, Van Dijk faced the cameras and criticized his teammates for a number of individual mistakes but he also urged them to stay upbeat in the hopes of pulling off another historic European comeback.
Van Dijk Dissapointed With Teammates At Anfield
It’s obviously not very good. An extremely depressing evening. We were penalized for making too many individual errors. Van Dijk said to TNT Sports, “It hurts.
“We have to perform significantly better given their man-marking system. We need to perform better and exert much more force when we have the ball. They immediately punished us because the spaces were unoccupied.
“It was a very disappointing night for all of us, but we must move past it quickly. We need everyone excited about the upcoming big game. We need to focus once more on achieving outcomes.
“We were completely exposed. More often than not, we gave up goals because we mishandled the ball in tight spots. It aches. However, it cannot defeat us. We have to move rather swiftly.
“Of course it hurts. It’s been a while since we’ve lost here. However, we must not deprive them of their accomplishments. They penalized us for our carelessness with possession. Unfortunately, we missed our opportunity to score one or two. We still had chances.
“There is no purpose in traveling to Italy if you do not believe. We have put a great deal of strain on ourselves by losing 3-0. However, winning the game on the weekend is the best way to recover. Everyone needs to turn it back on. After that, we can concentrate on establishing at least four objectives there.”
In their lone prior trip to Atalanta, according to 90 min, Liverpool triumphed 5-0, with Diogo Jota scoring a hat-trick in their Champions League group stage encounter in November 2020.
COMMENTS