Luke Littler took his opportunity to troll Liverpool once again on social media as the Manchester United supporter kept to his promise of being darts’ very own Neal Maupay. After an online back-and-forth with the Brentford striker last month, Littler vowed to continue giving out stick on his socials, saying: “I enjoy it. If other people can’t hack it, bad luck.”
And he continued his wind-up antics on Thursday night after United’s bitter rivals Liverpool were thrashed 3-0 by Atalanta in the Europa League. The Reds suffered an unexpected Anfield humbling in their quarter-final first leg at the same time Littler was on the oche in Birmingham.
The 17-year-old lost in the final on night 11 of the Premier League, going down 6-3 to Michael van Gerwen. The Warrington teenager posted afterwards on Instagram: “Disappointed to not get win #3 after making the final but more points and still top. We go after it again next week in Rotterdam.”
In the comments, Everton and United fans were keen to make Littler aware of Liverpool’s misery. And Littler replied to multiple comments with: “YANITED.” And he also shared a post of Gianluca Scamacca celebrating to his Instagram story.
The ex-West Ham striker scored Atalanta’s first two goals on Merseyside and alongside a picture of him and the 3-0 scoreline, Littler wrote: “Oh dear.” He accompanied the message with an emoji of a monkey covering both its eyes with its hands.
It isn’t the first time Littler has rubbed salt in Liverpool’s wounds. After the Red Devils’ FA Cup quarter-final defeat of the Reds, he posted: “What is the difference between Luke Littler and Jurgen Klopp? Littler has more trebles.”
Despite defeat to Van Gerwen in the final, wins over Rob Cross and Luke Humphries at the Utilita Arena mean Littler is top of the Premier League table. There are five more nights – including one at Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena on April 25 – before the play-offs on Thursday May 23.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp meanwhile said after his team’s calamitous display against Italians Atalanta: “It just was a really bad game, oh my God. So we started well, really well, and then didn’t continue. I think even before they scored but we just lost the plot a little bit, like we were everywhere and nowhere.
“We played a bad game, we deserved to lose and we must feel that now. But the boys have exactly this night to feel bad about it and then we have to build up again for the Crystal Palace game.”
Captain Virgil van Dijk added: “This feels bad. A very disappointing night for all of us, but we can’t dwell on it for too long because obviously in two days we play again, another very big game here, and we need everyone to be looking forward to that.
“This definitely will hurt tonight and from tomorrow we have to switch it back onto getting results. We have to bounce back and the only way to do it is obviously winning that game on the weekend.”
