A disappointing performance from Jurgen Klopp’s side saw the Reds beaten by Atalanta at Anfield on Wednesday night.

Matchday four ends in defeat.

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) November 25, 2020

Goals from Josip Ilicic and Robin Gosens in the space of four second-half minutes heightened Atalanta’s hope of a knock stage qualification as Liverpool struggled long before that although the Reds remain well placed at the top of Group D.

It was a much-changed side for Klopp who has still a little bit of work to do to secure qualification to the knockout stages of the Champions League too.

Mohamed Salah returned to Liverpool's starting line-up after his recent positive Covid-19 test as Jurgen Klopp made five changes for the Champions League visit of Atalanta.

Klopp named a second-string defence with only Joel Matip remaining from Sunday's win over Leicester as Neco Williams, Rhys Williams and Kostas Tsimikas were given a start. James Milner moved from right-back to midfield with Salah and Divock Origi coming in up front.

Atalanta made six changes from their 5-0 defeat to the Reds three weeks ago, strengthened by the inclusion of the likes of Robin Gosens and Marten De Roon.it was a Sharp start by Atalanta who were very resilient against the Liverpool who beat them 5-0 in Italy.

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They made a few moves to beat the Liverpool defence following a Gomez move but couldn’t find Ilicic after the far post with his deep cross. He went alone and drove at Matip but could only guide his right-foot shot a yard or so wide of Alisson's left-hand post.

Atalanta continued to target their attacks down their left as the cross was headed out by Tsimikas, only as far as Ilicic, whose left-foot half volley was always rising. It was a slow start for Liverpool as they gave the Italians to do more of the running. The visitors kept throwing bodies to block the home side’s shots to deny them a shot on target in the first half.

Illicic broke the deadlock 15 minutes into the second after a lovely worked goal.

The visitors worked the ball from left to right before Papu Gomez looked up and saw the run of Josip Ilicic peeling off the back of Tsimikas to slide his shot first-time underneath Alisson.

Robertson, Fabinho, Firmino and Jota replaced Wijnaldum, Salah, Origi and Tsmikas in the 62-minute. It took less than two minutes after the Reds subs for the visitors to add their second at Anfield through Gosens.

Gomez once more dinked his cross into the box from the left and it was headed back across goal by Hans Hateboer and Robin Gosens was completely unmarked by Williams to volley left-footed past Alisson.

Liverpool looked to patiently find a route back into this game but the resilient Italians kept them out of the yard box to take home all three points.