Virgil van Dijk, the captain of Liverpool, said that the English champions need to build from the back after beating Real Madrid 1-0 in the Champions League yesterday. This was their finest game of the season.
According to AFP, Liverpool had lost six of their last seven games and had not kept a clean sheet in ten games before beating Aston Villa 2-0 on Saturday.
Madrid came to Merseyside in great scoring form, but they didn’t get many chances because goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois stopped them from getting an embarrassing score for the 15-time European winners.
“It’s easy to say now that we won two in a row.” “You have to stay calm and see things from a different point of view in a world of chaos,” Van Dijk remarked.
“Everyone knows how football works; it can change overnight.”
Arsenal is seven points ahead of Liverpool at the top of the Premier League. They have also won their first four Champions League games, owing to eight straight clean sheets.
On Sunday, Liverpool will have to defend their crown against Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, who has scored 26 goals for club and country this season.
Van Dijk said, “You can see that Arsenal is doing well right now because they aren’t giving up chances and keeping clean sheets.”
“We can hurt anyone on the break; it all starts with the defense.” You saw the hard effort today.
“We have to keep going.” “Sunday is going to be hard again.”
Arne Slot, the manager of Liverpool, said that his team’s fortunes had improved over the previous week since they are back at Anfield.
The Reds have lost six games this season, but only two of them have been at home. One of those losses was last week in the League Cup when Slot put together a very different team to play Crystal Palace.
Slot remarked, “It helps if you can play in front of these fans and in front of Real Madrid because I think that brings out the best in my players and our fans.”
“A great game against a team that only lost once all year.” It might have been a little more.
When Trent Alexander-Arnold came back to Anfield as a late substitution for Madrid, the fans were not happy.
The England international was once a fan favorite at Liverpool because he won seven major titles while playing for his hometown club.
Conor Bradley has had a hard time getting his spot as Alexander-Arnold’s right-back replacement because the season has started off so badly.
But the Northern Irishman did a great job of shutting down Vinicius Junior, and Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate kept Kylian Mbappe quiet.
Slot said, “I noted before the game that they have scored 26 goals in La Liga, and Mbappe and Vinicius together have 24 goal contributions (goals or assists).
“You need to make sure these two don’t score if you want to win this game.”
“Conor was great. Not everyone can handle going up against Vinicius one-on-one so many times. He did a great job today.
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