Virgil van Dijk: Liverpool Haven’t Given Up Hope

Big Virg hasn’t lost his head, and neither should you.

Last night’s scoreline looked worse than it should have been for the visitors. The xG for last night was roughly 2.7-1.6, with quite a few of the home side’s biggest chances coming in the final moments when Liverpool were desperately pushing for that deserved away goal. Of course, it wasn’t to be, and the gods of football give zero fucks for what is “deserved.”

Regardless, Liverpool have a task at hand, and will want to put on a show for the Anfield faithful, even if it’s just to regain some semblance of pride.

“We’re disappointed by the result on the scoresheet because I don’t think it says how the game was really,” Virgil van Dijk said after the final whistle, speaking for us all.

“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.

“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.”

Liverpool found themselves on the other side of this equation twice last year, taking a three-goal advantage away to both Manchester City and Roma en route to the final. An early goal from City made for probably the most stressful half of the knock-out phases for Liverpool, something the Reds will no doubt be hoping to replicate at Anfield.

Hopefully the law of averages evens out a bit for the Reds, and Mane, Salah, and (Fowler-willing) Firmino take their chances. If so, the tie could get interesting fast. After all, it isn’t the first time Liverpool have been down 3-0 at the half...

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com