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The hopes of Liverpool winning a continental title this season yesterday came to an end as the Reds beat Atalanta 1-0 but lost 3-1 on aggregate to exit the Europa League.
Liverpool surprisingly lost 3-0 to Atalanta in the first leg at Anfield and they were given hope as Mohamed Salah slammed home an early penalty inside the first ten minutes to make it 1-0 on the night.
Luis Diaz then saw an effort smothered and Salah missed a one-on-one as Jurgen Klopp’s men ended the first 45 minutes strongly.
However, in the second half, Liverpool offered very little, and it was the hosts who had the better chances.
As the game progressed Klopp threw Diogo Jota, Drawin Nunez and Harvey Elliott on, but the belief drained with each passing minute as the Liverpool manager’s European reign at Anfield came to an end in an unflattering manner.
Meanwhile, another English side, West Ham got knocked out of the Europa League as Jeremie Frimpong’s late leveller denied them the consolation of becoming the first team to beat new German champions Bayer Leverkusen this season.
Michaiil Antonio had given the host the lead inside 13th minute with a powerful header at London Stadium gave David Moyes’ side the perfect start in their attempts to overturn a two-goal deficit from the first leg.
But despite dominating the opening period they were unable to prize open the Leverkusen defence a second time.
Jarrod Bowen came closest when his far-post effort was saved by Matej Kovar but Xabi Alonso’s side improved significantly after the break.
Frimpong blazed over after running clear of the defence, but made amends in the 89th minute with a shot that took a significant deflection off Aaron Cresswell and flew past Lukasz Fabianski.
The goal preserved Leverkusen’s incredible unbeaten record since a 3-0 reverse at Bochum on 27 May last year, 328 days ago, and booked a last-four meeting with Brighton’s conquerors Roma, who knocked out AC Milan.
With the exit of Liverpool and West Ham only Aston Villa remain on the continent as they qualified over Lille of France on Thursday.