Virgil Van Dijk has expressed his disappointment with Liverpool’s 1-0 defeat to Inter Milan last night.
The Reds still progressed from the tie, 2-1 on aggregate. But in an interview with beIN SPORTS after the game, the Dutchman couldn’t hide his frustration with the result at Anfield.
“Very disappointed of course, we all play games to win games and obviously we knew it was going to be tough,” said Van Dijk.
“We played there away and it was tough already, but we had chances to score.”
The 30-year-old is correct. It was a frustrating evening for Liverpool who never really got going under the lights at Anfield.
Despite their difficulty in dealing with Inter at times, they still managed to create the clearest chances of the game.
The Reds hit the woodwork three times and Luis Diaz had a certain goal blocked by a flying Arturo Vidal.
Although Liverpool are into the last eight having beaten a really good team, such is their mentality that they won’t be happy.
A winning mentality
Obviously nobody likes to lose games of football. But Liverpool’s main objective for the tie was still successfully completed. They are in the Champions League quarter-final for the fourth time in five seasons.
Lesser teams may have been satisfied by that alone. But Van Dijk was visibly irritated by the defeat during his interview.
As was Jurgen Klopp, who said he was thankful to assistant manager Peter Krawietz who reminded him that if they’re going to lose, this was a good time to do it.
Liverpool are now vastly experienced at this stage of the Champions League. They are a team full of winners and few in the squad display that characteristic better than Van Dijk.
Of course there is no shame in losing to Inter. They are Italian champions and are still favourites to retain the Scudetto this season.
Their performance over the two games against Liverpool was excellent and they could easily have gone through.
Hopefully that can focus the minds of the Liverpool squad and they can channel their frustration into giving a better performance against Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.
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