Liverpool were soundly beaten on a dismal night in the Europa League at Anfield last night.
The Reds headed into the game as heavy favourites to progress into the semi-finals of the competition. However, Atalanta picked them apart on a sobering evening for Jurgen Klopp’s team.
There weren’t many positives to take from the game, with Liverpool now having a mountain to climb ahead of the second-leg in Italy.
As Virgil van Dijk said after the game, you can’t write the Reds off for that one. However, it feels like they’ve just left themselves with far too much to do.
It must be said that the performances to a man weren’t good enough from Liverpool. But although that remains a fact, it’s also true that Atalanta played out of their skins. And the crowd at Anfield recognised that.
How did the crowd react to Liverpool 0-3 Atalanta
It isn’t often that Liverpool get beaten at Anfield. It’s even more rare that the Reds lose quite so comfortably. It just doesn’t happen.
As a result, Atalanta, their players and manager deserve enormous praise. They had a job to do and they executed it absolutely perfectly.
And as per journalist James Pearce on X, the home crowd showed their appreciation for a team that had done an absolute number on them.
Despite the disappointing nature of the defeat and performance, the Liverpool fans displayed their class by reportedly applauding the Atalanta players on the pitch.
“Atalanta players being applauded off by the home fans,” Pearce reports. A nice touch on a quite dreadful evening.
Read More: Jamie Carragher’s reaction to Liverpool 0-3 Atalanta
What else was notable about the Anfield crowd
There were a couple more things to note about the Anfield crowd yesterday evening. Firstly, owing to a protest about ticket pricing increases, there were none of the usual flags present on the Kop.
This appeared to really sedate the atmosphere, which never really got going at all. Talk about counter-productive.
Jurgen Klopp could reportedly be seen attempting to gee up the crowd behind him in the main stand, but it just didn’t have any effect.
In what is likely to be the manager’s final Anfield European night, it seems the most noise the fans made all night was for the opposition. A poor state of affairs on a sorry evening.