Keeping the Atalanta frontline at bay during Tuesday night’s away victory at the home of the Serie A side was key, expressed Liverpool FC boss Jurgen Klopp in his post-match interview to BT Sport.
The Reds ran out comfortable winners in their mid-week Champions League fixture, shipping five goals past Atalanta, as Diogo Jota brought up his first hat-trick in the Liverpool FC shirt in a superb manner, along with Mohammad Salah and Sadio Mane getting their name on the scoresheet as well.
However, Klopp’s comments in the aftermath of the 5-0 win throw light on the fact that the Merseyside giants had made note of the quality attacking options in the Atalanta side, namely Papau Gomez and Duvcan Zapata, both of whom needed to be kept in check by the Liverpool FC defence throughout the game at the Stadio di Bergamo.
“My boys played an incredible game, front line and defending, midfield organisation and desire, last line pushing up knowing the threat of Muriel and Zapata can cause.
“I don’t think you can defend Gomez three of four games in a row but tonight we did for one game.
“A 5-0 win but still the goalie had to make three world-class saves. It was a really good game.”
With an injury-hit centre-back department requiring Klopp to draft 19-year-old starlet Rhys Williams alongside Joe Gomez as the two central defenders for the Reds, both players were hugely important in ensuring that their side held out for an important away victory in the Champions League group stage fixture.
