The captain of Liverpool, Virgil Van Dijk, has acclaimed the union of his team in his 1-0 victory over Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday, but insists that they will have to “fight” in the second week of next week to ensure the qualification for the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
The substitute Harvey Elliott scored a late winner for Liverpool in the Parc des princes after PSG had dominated the first stage of his draw of the 16 round.
Khvicha Kvarathskhelia thought he had given the hosts leadership in the first half before his curling effort was discarded out of play, while the Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker delivered a heroic exhibition to preserve the clean blade on his side.
“I think you could see, it was not a common game that we like to play because we obviously also like to dominate,” said Van Dijk after the game.
“We like to have more influence, especially with the ball, than we had, but we knew that before the game it could be a stage in terms of the fact, they could have the ball much more and we would have to find a way to create opportunities.
“Sometimes you saw that it could be open if you made the right decisions, but most defended itself as a unit and prevented them from writing down and Ali [Alisson] Obviously he played an important role in that.
“What I really liked was the union, everyone put a change and we know that everyone can be better.
“We do not want to play in this way because everyone who plays football wants to have the ball a lot and want to be dominant opponents, but we play against a team with a lot of world class quality and quality and made it very difficult for everyone in the world so far and we made it difficult for us, but we find a way and we have to try to end next week.
“It will be a difficult task, but we are at home with our fans and we have to fight, and we will.”
Reflecting on Alisson's exhibition, Van Dijk added: “Listen, he is the best goalkeeper in the world; I have mentioned it many times in the past and showed him again on the biggest stage.
“Many shots from a distance, but he was there to save us and we put ourselves in a good position for next week, but we all know that this is far from finishing.
“They are an outstanding team with an outstanding manager and come to Liverpool with the belief that they can change this and we have to be ready for a very large task and we will be.”
