Liverpool were knocked out of the Europa League by Atalanta with the Italian side reaching the semi-finals 3-1 on aggregate on Thursday.

Atalanta are in the last four of a European competition for the first time since 1988, despite Mohamed Salah’s early penalty giving Liverpool a 1-0 second leg win, thanks to their three-goal lead established in the quarter-final first leg at Anfield last week.

In what is becoming a sobering climax to the season, Liverpool have won just three of their last nine games in all competitions and again looked tired after already having played 52 games this campaign.

Jurgen Klopp may well only have the League Cup to show for his final season on Merseyside as the German’s team have been eliminated from the FA Cup and Europa League and trail Manchester City in the Premier League title race.

Gian Piero Gasperini called Thursday’s match probably the most important Atalanta had ever played and his players were hailed as heroes at the final whistle by a pulsating crowd at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo.

Fireworks were shot into the air from behind the stands while in the ground supporters bounced and roared at a huge victory for their team against giants of European football.

Atalanta last reached the semi-finals of a European competition in 1988 when they were knocked out of the old Cup Winners’ Cup by Mechelen.

Atalanta were then a Serie B team but the future is increasingly bright for a historically small, provincial club which has been punching well above its weight ever since Gasperini took charge in 2016.

Reaching the last four even trumps their run to 2020 Champions League quarter-finals, where they were desperately unlucky to lose to Paris Saint-Germain.

That run came at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, as Bergamo became the epicentre of a deadly global health crisis.

And Atalanta still have the opportunity to crown Gasperini’s reign with the club’s first major trophy since the Italian Cup in 1963.

The Minister of Sports, Senator John Enoh, has assured Nigerian football fans that the senior men’s national team, the Super Eagles, would have a new coach in the next one or two weeks.

The Super Eagles have been without a substantive coach following the expiration of the contract of Jose Peseiro after the Africa Cup of Nations in February where the team finished as runners up.

Finidi George, who was one of the assistants to Peseiro coached the team in the last two friendly matches they played against Ghana and Mali, but the Minister said the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will soon name a permanent coach for the team.

“Unfortunately, the senior national team doesn’t have a coach. We played two freindlies and had just Finidi George oversee those two matches,” Senator Enoh said in excusive interview on Channels Televisions Sports Tonight on Thursday.

“The first responsibility of getting a coach lies with the NFF and I have been in touch with the NFF because I think Nigerians didn’t expect that after AFCON and after the contract with coach Peseiro came to an end and wasn’t renewed, that it will take as long and not have a coach yet.

“But NFF is conscious and mindful that our next qualifiers in June, what I can assure is that in the next one or two weeks at the most that the senior national team will have a new coach.

“My engagement and interactions with NFF suggest to me that NFF is conscious of expectations of Nigerians, they are conscious that they cannot afford to lead the country to another non-appearance at the World Cup, the NFF knows what Nigeria lost by not being at the last World Cup and they are working very hard to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

The Super Eagles did not make it to the last world cup and have started the 2026 World Cup qualifiers on a poor note, drawing with Lesotho and Zimbabwe, a start the Minister admitted is not good enough.

He insisted that Nigeria cannot afford to miss out on going to another World Cup considering all the losses that caused the nation.

“I think we have not had a tremendous start, it’s a shaky one and therefore there is a milage to cover given that we didn’t go for the last World Cup. We cannot afford not to go for the next and therefore everything needs to be done.

“Coming after AFCON and coming after we have had a tremendous show somewhat, I think everybody expects that we should be able to consolidate on that and take it from there,” Enoh said.

Chuba Akpom is keen on a return to England after spending just eight months in the Eredivisie with Ajax.

The Nigerian-born forward linked up with Ajax from Sky Bet Championship club, Middlesbrough last summer.

Ajax paid €14.3m for the former Arsenal player.


As per Sportswitness UK, Akpom is looking to leave Ajax in the summer, with Fulham and Nottingham Forest linked with the striker.

Akpom has been limited to just five starts at Ajax with nine goals and one assist to his name.

More Premier League clubs are expected to show interest in the striker before the end of the season.