Virgil van Dijk tells Liverpool players what they must do in Europa League second leg vs Atalanta

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has said the only way for him and his teammates to turn the Europa League tie against Atalanta around is to get back to winning ways at the weekend.

It was a night to forget at Anfield on Thursday as the Reds fell to a shock 3-0 defeat against the Italian side in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final. Jurgen Klopp’s side found themselves 1-0 down at halftime thanks to Gianluca Scamacca’s goal, it may have been worse if it wasn’t for saves from Caoimhín Kelleher at the start and end of the half.

Klopp responded at halftime by making three changes, Andy Robertson replaced Konstantinos Tsimikas, Mo Salah replaced Harvey Elliott and Dominik Szoboszlai replaced Curtis Jones. Despite Liverpool having some chances to score, it was Atalanta who doubled their lead on the hour mark when Scamacca got his second of the game.

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It got worse for Liverpool with seven minutes left to play when Mario Pasalic put in a rebound to make it 3-0. It leaves the Reds with a mountain to climb when they travel to Italy next week.

The team have been in a similar situation in Europe before and come through. Van Dijk has said that the belief they can do it again has to be there.

But the defender has highlighted the importance of bouncing back straight away. Liverpool host Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Sunday in what is another huge game in the title race.

“If you don’t have belief then there is no point going to Italy,” Van Dijk told TNT Sports post-match. “Obviously we have made it hard for ourselves going there 3-0 down but like I said, we will focus on Crystal Palace.

“We have to bounce back but the only way to do it is by winning that game at the weekend. We need everyone to quickly switch it back on and then we will focus on hopefully putting in at least four goals over there.”

In Liverpool’s last visit to Atalanta they came out as 5-0 winners in the Champions League in November 2020. Diogo Jota got a hat-trick with Mo Salah and Sadio Mane scoring the other two.

Jota made his comeback from injury in Thursday night’s game at Anfield. The forward will hope to have a similar impact on next week’s visit, with a similar scoreline seeing Liverpool through to the semi-final.