Van Dijk Doesn’t Fear French Giants

The defender promises that Liverpool are heading to France ready to win.

I mean, try to imagine Virgil van Dijk being afraid of anything. The talented, defensive giant is the best center-back in the Premier League, and maybe one of the best currently playing in the world. He has become an invaluable cog in the Red machine that has only conceded five goals in the first 13 league games.

On Wednesday, Liverpool face a new challenge: traveling to France to take on the Ligue 1 giants, Paris Saint-Germain. A win guarantees them passage into the Champions League knockout stages for the second season in a row. A loss makes things much more complicated.

Van Dijk knows the stakes as well as anyone, but promises that Jürgen Klopp’s men are heading into this huge game with no fear.

“I don’t have any fear. We respect them as a team but we want to win the game,” the Dutchman said. “We are going to totally up for it, motivated and we will make sure we are ready from the start. We don’t need to forget that we are one of the best teams in Europe as well. We reached the final last year and we want to do at least the same this year. That’s our goal. So we are going to try and beat them.

“I think at a club like Liverpool you always feel a bit of pressure. You should do. But it doesn’t bother me. I just want to play. I want to enjoy the games because not a lot of people have the chance to do what we do. That’s how we started football as well, enjoying what we are doing and that’s what I try to do as well.”

Liverpool were always destined to be part of the group of death in the Champions League simply because they were far and away the best pot three of the bunch. All three teams have proved themselves formidable challengers, but Liverpool came out on top in the last match against PSG. Hopefully they’ll manage the same feat on Wednesday.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com