ReactionVirgil van Dijk: We must react quickly to Atalanta defeat
Virgil van Dijk called on Liverpool to respond quickly and positively to the disappointment of Thursday’s Europa League quarter-final, first-leg defeat by Atalanta.
The Reds were beaten 3-0 at Anfield, meaning they travel to Bergamo for next week’s second leg requiring a big comeback if they are to advance to the last four of the competition.
Post-match, Van Dijk spoke to TNT Sports. Read the captain’s first-leg reaction below.
On what happened in the game…
A defeat. Obviously it’s half-time but 3-0 down is not great and a very disappointing evening of course. I think too many individual mistakes and we got punished for it and yeah, this feels bad.
On why it was so difficult for the Reds to find their rhythm…
Well, I think obviously with the man-marking system they do, we have to do much better and when we have the ball we have to keep the ball better and for longer and be stronger. Obviously they won those 50-50 challenges most of the time and then the spaces were open. They obviously punished us immediately with that and that’s what happens. A very disappointing night for all of us, but we can’t dwell on it for too long because obviously in two days we play again, another very big game here, and we need everyone to be looking forward to that. But this definitely will hurt tonight and from tomorrow we have to switch it back onto getting results.
On whether he feels the goals Liverpool conceded were ‘too easy’…
Of course. We were wide open but it’s more that we conceded the goals because we lost the balls in difficult moments and that’s why we were wide open. Yeah, it’s a collective thing in the end and we have to do much better. We all know it. It hurts, like I said, but it can’t put us down and we have to react pretty quickly.
On whether the result is a ‘shock’…
Well, it hurts of course. We didn’t lose here for a long time but credit to them – we shouldn’t take the credit from them away. They punished us for being sloppy, especially in possession, and obviously we still had chances to do it, to score at least one or two, and unfortunately we didn’t.
On whether Liverpool can take belief from the fact they won 5-0 away to Atalanta in 2020…
Well, if you don’t have belief there is no point in going to Italy. Obviously we have made it very hard for ourselves, going there 3-0 down, but we focus [now] on Crystal Palace. We have to bounce back and the only way to do it is obviously winning that game on the weekend. Like I said, we need everyone to quickly switch it back on and then we will focus on putting out at least four goals over there.