Virgil van Dijk's first LFC year: A European adventure
Van Dijk's first few months at the club were punctuated by Liverpool's incredible run to the Champions League final...
When you come to a new club, it is always going to be like the first day at school. You’re going to be a bit quiet, you’re not going to be really yourself because it is always difficult.
We played the game against Everton and then we went to Dubai, so I got to know the boys better and their different ways, their football ways. That helped so much for me. We were creating bonds already with almost everyone. We were having dinner together, we spoke a lot about life – not only about football – so it helped me to take the extra step to get myself out of new schoolboy zone, if I can call it that!
I think after a couple of games, you feel like you’re getting settled, you get all the tactics right and you can be yourself again. On the pitch, it is easier to be yourself, to express yourself, but off the pitch it is always important to just be who you are. I like to just be happy, to be vocal, be with all the boys, talking. That’s who I am and after a couple of weeks it went fine. It was all good.
The quality of the players and people around me was very apparent very quickly. When I started training with the boys and playing games, sometimes you’d think, ‘Wow!’ You just enjoy it as well. From the outside, you see so many things that you think are very good, but when you actually see it up close, every day, it’s just something different. I had that feeling quite quick.
On the pitch it was going good and we had that amazing run to the Champions League final.
My first Champions League game for the club was away to Porto and it was pretty crazy, to be honest. We had a lot of meetings because Porto hadn’t lost at home for a long time, so we had to be sure we were fully prepared.
We were prepared.
The weather was terrible that night as I remember it, heavy rain. But we just played our game and were outstanding all over the pitch, basically. We dominated the whole game and it was a great night. We had a fantastic feeling after it.
That continued into the quarter-finals and the semi-finals against Manchester City and Roma. Those games at Anfield were probably a couple of the best games I’ve witnessed and played in, especially the City game. It was outstanding. Everything clicked and the goals we scored were fantastic. We kept them under pressure, we dominated the game pretty much. They obviously had moments because good teams always have their moments – and City are an outstanding team, but to win 3-0 was something special for us. The atmosphere was something different, it was bouncing for the whole 90 minutes. I’ll never forget it.
The second leg at City was intense. I was confident we would see it through because I fancied us to score at least one, maybe two, because with the momentum we had built up, especially with the front three, if they gave us any sniff, I fancied us to score.
We finished it in the second half. Mo’s goal was one of the best moments of the season – and it was such a relief as well. If you look at the second half, it was so deserved as well. We started to press them again, making sure we had the back line pressing high as well instead of leaving gaps like we did in the first half. When Mo scored that goal, it was basically game over.
It was a fantastic feeling, as it was after the final whistle in Rome when we’d reached the final – and we were able to celebrate with our fans in the stadium.