Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk previews Tuesday night's Champions League visit from Paris Saint-Germain and calls for a 'world-class' performance
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Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk is certainly not underestimating Paris Saint-Germain
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk is certainly not underestimating Paris Saint-Germain
Virgil van Dijk has demanded Liverpool must match the "world-class" quality of Paris Saint-Germain if they are to progress to the Champions League quarter-finals. The Reds host the Ligue 1 champions on Tuesday night in the second leg of their last-16 tie, having won 1-0 at Parc des Princes last week thanks to Harvey Elliott's late winner.
It was Alisson Becker whose performance was singled out most for praise after the game, however, after the goalkeeper made a string of saves to keep a clean sheet in a first leg dominated by the French champions.
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And Van Dijk has challenged his team-mates to step it up to qualify for the quarter-finals for the first time three years, where they would meet either Aston Villa or Club Brugge.
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"Obviously now it’s a team with different qualities (to Saturday's opponents Southampton), with world-class qualities, and we have to be spot on in everything we do, each and every one of us," the Liverpool captain says.
"We all know that. That will be our main focus now, nothing else. I said after the game in Paris that the focus would be on today and after that, now the focus is on PSG.
"We all know how difficult it is going to be, I think they made eight changes today, so they rested some players for the game.
"So it’s down to us to be more than ready for a big night. We need everyone in that sense: all the players, staff, fans. Hopefully it will be a great night for us but it is going to be hard work because they are a world-class team and they showed it against us already.
"I think they are an outstanding team, a fantastic team, you can see the work rate they put in. We obviously had a debrief after the game about it and you could see them, if they lost the ball, pressing all of them together and running all together. It’s a big credit to the manager to put that work in and he made, in my eyes, a world-class team out of it.
"It will be tough on Tuesday and you will all see. I think anyone who before our game over there expected it to be a dominating performance from us, I don’t think they really looked at PSG throughout the season, also knowing that they were unbeaten for such a long time.
"We were prepared very well, obviously we could have done better in some ways. But we know that on Tuesday it is going to be as tough, maybe even tougher, because they will have to come (and win) but we obviously want to win as well, to make sure that we go through."
Van Dijk adds: "I’ve no idea [about PSG's 2018 visit to Anfield]. I can only remember from that group stage that we lost all our away games and we had to turn it around at home. We were quite lucky with the Napoli game, that Ali (Alisson) was the hero for us. Football is down to small margins.
"That goal that night against PSG, the winning goal from Bobby (Roberto Firmino), was an outstanding goal and a very important one and, like I said already, it’s going to be very difficult. We need our fans, we need everybody to be at their best to try and get through. That will be our main focus right now and we will see."