Liverpool v Atalanta

I’ve nicked this next bit from my post when we last played Atalanta in the CL in 2020 and when we won pretty convincingly over the two legs. Atalanta was a devotee of the goddess Artemis. She was known as a fleet footed huntress and devout virgin (probably not from Liverpool then). In order to win her hand in marriage potential suitors had to outrun her and if they failed they were slain. Many tried and failed until along came good old Hippomenes who used three irresistible solid gold apples to distract her during the race which he then won along with her hand in marriage. A woman distracted by valuable baubles eh? Some things never change. Although some say that she allowed herself to be distracted because she wanted him to win. As I said some things never change;-) Anyway we knew all that, of course, but what you scholars of Greek mythology might not have known is that there is also an Italian football club named after her and what’s more Liverpool are playing them tonight in the Europa cup quarter finals.

Atalanta are sixth in the league and in a pretty poor run of form but of course they will still be up for this game and dangerous. On thing is for sure they will not be taken lightly by Klopp.

Team: I suspect Klopp will want to start strong and hope to put the tie to bed in the first leg and as quickly as possible. Kelleher, Bradley, Konate, VVD, Robbo Mac Allister. Bosz, Jones, Diaz, Nunez, Salah. I have assuned that Konate will be fit to play (always the optimist) and have heard that Endo might not be. I have also assumed that Allison, Jota and TAA will start on the bench.

Harvey starts after about 3 mins and Jurgen after 18

Kick off is usual time ay 20.00 BST