Virgil van Dijk has processed the missed penalty against Argentina in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Qatar. Partly due to the miss of the defender, the Netherlands lost more than two weeks ago via penalties to the later world champion.
“It took me two days to lose the missed penalty,” Van Dijk said on Monday after his club Liverpool’s victory over Aston Villa (1-3). Viaplay. The defender scored the 0-2 in that game.
“After the game I couldn’t sleep. That seems very logical. We were very close after a 0-2 deficit. Unfortunately I missed an important penalty and we were eliminated. That hurt a lot. The evening, night and the next day were very tough.”
The Netherlands seemed to be experiencing a hopeless evening at the beginning of December when Argentina took a 0-2 lead fifteen minutes before the end. Van Gaal’s team turned the backlog completely thanks to two goals from Wout Weghorst. Weghorst’s last goal came in the 101st minute. Due to misses by Steven Berghuis and Van Dijk, the curtain fell for the Orange in the penalty series.
Van Dijk was able to move his mind on holiday with his wife and two daughters. “I was completely cut off from the football world and enjoyed my family. That is the most important thing in life. That helped me a lot.”
Van Dijk: ‘It’s about time I scored’
Van Dijk scored for Liverpool for the first time in four months against Aston Villa. On the stroke of half time, the defender worked the ball into the far corner with his left leg. That happened after a corner kick from Trent Alexander-Arnold, somewhat fortunately, reached the Dutchman via Mohamed Salah.
“It was time for me to score again,” said Van Dijk. “It was important. It’s nice to come back like this. It’s been a nice Christmas so far. Now all the hectic starts. We’ll be playing again in a few days.”
Liverpool awaits a very tough schedule in the coming weeks. The number six in the Premier League plays no less than three games in a period of nine days.
The next game for manager Jürgen Klopp’s team is Friday (at home against Leicester City), followed by confrontations with Brentford (January 2) and Wolverhampton Wanderers (January 7, League Cup).
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