Atalanta can't or can. This totally depends on the strategy that will be used by this club. If atalanta will able consistently defensive against liverpool and it will have chance to win the game. Liverpool is surely going fully offensive against atalanta soon.
The fact is that if liverpool is one of strongest team in the ePL. it's also in the sme level as manchester city which was able winning multiple trophies last season. Im sure that you know how strong manchester city is now.
I think maybe Atalanta is better when compared to Sparta Prague but still they are not better than Liverpool. After knowing Liverpool's very strong performance when against Sparta Prague, Atalanta they definitely started to prepare a defensive strategy so that Liverpool could not attack Atalanta brutally like they did to Sparta. Prague, but playing a defensive strategy alone is not enough if Atalanta does not have the strength to attack and provide fierce resistance to the Liverpool players to be able to break through the Liverpool defense.
Indeed, this is quite a tough obstacle that Atalanta has to overcome in the quarter-finals because their opponent is a big Premier League club and their current condition is very good so Atalanta's chances of winning are very unlikely because Liverpool will not let their opponent get away easily and Liverpool wants to present very fierce competition in all the competitions it plays.
Yes, Liverpool's current performance in the Premier League is almost on par with Manchester City, therefore many people are Liverpool favorite for in the European League. Just as they are Manchester City favorite for in the Champions League because both of them have a strong performance in this big competition to be able to win the title and if both of them win titles in these two big competitions. The Premier League is a very strong club this season and also makes the name of the English league proud.