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What's the story?
Liverpool centre-back Virgil van Dijk has expressed his disappointment at his side's loss to Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final fixture, stating that it was Lionel Messi's sublime qualities that led to the Premier League club's downfall.
In case you didn't know
Van Dijk, who was recently named PFA Player of the Year, was unable to stifle Messi's efforts during the game, with the Argentine scoring a decisive brace to condemn Liverpool to a 3-0 defeat.
The Dutchman has been pivotal to Liverpool's title challenge this season and his presence at the heart of defence has helped the Merseyside outfit to concede just 20 goals in 36 league games. In fact, no player has been able to dribble past the 27-year-old in the English top flight this season.
The defender's performance during Wednesday's game has, however, put him on the receiving end of heavy criticism from former players and pundits. Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand said, "Virgil van Dijk…he’s at fault. He can see Suarez there, he’s pointing where he wants it. It’s not rocket science. ‘He’s right in front of him – that’s your man – the no9 on the back of his shirt. Static. Virgil van Dijk there was static. It’s criminal."
The heart of the matter
Speaking after the game, Van Dijk told Liverpool's official website, "We’re disappointed by the result on the scoresheet because I don’t think it says how the game was really. I thought we played well, we created big chances, should have scored at least one goal and obviously they could have scored in total four maybe."
"Obviously it’s 3-0 now and there’s a big job to do over at Anfield but we have shown throughout the season that we never give up so we have to just believe. We need everyone and we’ll see how it goes."
He added, "We believe and we keep believing. We know how tough it is with the quality that they have throughout the whole pitch but we showed at times that we can definitely create good chances against them and make it difficult against them."
"They’ve still got the extra quality [in Messi] that turns up whenever he likes but we’ll try to do everything that’s possible to go through."
What's next?
Liverpool will hope to overturn their first-leg deficit when they host Barcelona for the closing leg of the fixture on May 7.
