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Gianluca Scamacca’s brace rounded up by Mario Pasalic’s strike was more than enough for the Italian club, Atalanta to leave Anfield road the most dejected it has been over a very long period of time.
Three precious goals for Atalanta ahead of the return leg at the Gewiss stadium in Italy and with the away goal rule have been scrapped, it would be wild to totally write off Jurgen Klopp’s outfit with the rich history of Liverpool FC across continental and domestic inclinations when they’ve been initially pegged down.
Club captain Virgil van Dijk has already remarked “there’s no point going to Italy if we don’t believe”.
Ahead of the return leg with Atalanta’s Bergamo Calcio, we take a look at some of Liverpool’s greatest comebacks
Liverpool 4-3 Borussia Dortmund
In 2016, Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool played out a 1-1 draw with his former club Borussia Dortmund at the Signal Iduna Park in Germany.
The second leg required whole to play for either side to progress. The German outfit got off to the brightest start possible with two valuable away goals in the opening ten minutes to secure them a comfortable leverage. Clutch Belgian forward, Divock Origi struck one back for the reds only for the long serving Marco Reus to negate that with a sublime finish.
Trailing 4-2 on aggregates, Klopp’s side showed substance to find two more goals to tie the game. With a seeming exit as a result of the away goal rule, the reds pushed more and got the dividend of their result. Croatian central defender Dejan Lovren at the death of time in the 91st minute powered in a bullet header to send Anfield into a frenzy.
Liverpool 4-0 Barcelona
FC Barcelona found the advantage early on in the two-legged UCL semi-final tie having taken a 3-0 win at Camp Nou. Perhaps to this day, the club would still rue the flurry of missed chances which could have extended their lead in that tie.
In the pre-match interview for the return leg, Jurgen Klopp emphasized that only with that set of players did they have a chance to stage a comeback.
The game started off on the strong foot with Jordan Henderson clumsily finding his way into the 18-yard box to muster a shot on goal. Divock Origi converted the rebound for the game’s first goal.
Liverpool headed into halftime with a 1-0 victory. Gini Wijnaldum replaced the injured Andy Robertson after the break as Liverpool sought to mount an offence. The Dutch midfielder found 2 goals in quick succession to tie the game for Liverpool.
With Lionel Messi and Barcelona still trying to find a way back into the game, the teenage Trent Alexander-Arnold produced the famous “corner taken quickly” moment for Origi to convert yet again for the team’s fourth. Assuredly this game remains one of the most remarkable of the Jurgen Klopp tenure.
Liverpool 3-3 AC Milan
There are not enough excuses to give when you make a champions league final and go down 3-nil in just the first 45 minutes of play.
The 2005 UCL final or more popularly the miracle of Istanbul pitted a stuttering Liverpool side against a star-studded AC Milan outfit.
The legendary Paolo Maldini converted Andrea Pirlo’s delivery in the opening minutes while Hernan Crespo doubled up with a brace in the opening half.
With the array of stars on offer for AC Milan in the likes of Clarence Seedorf, Andriy Shevchenko, Brazilian great Dida, it was expected they would comfortably round the game up.
The next half of football was a different affair. Steven Gerrard found the back of the net with a well-drilled header in the 54th minute to kickstart their comeback.
Vladimir Smicer added a voluptuous long range strike and Xabi Alonso put another in from the rebound of his missed penalty.
The game proceeded to shootouts and Jerzy Dudek’s heroics delivered Liverpool an European title on that cold night in Turkey.
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