German coach Jürgen Klopp’s men advanced 2-0 at Anfield on Tuesday, but then conceded five goals against the record holder in the number of titles in the main continental competition (14 times), so they suffered the biggest loss in their home on the European scene.
“An almost impossible task awaits us in Madrid in three weeks, but when the time comes, we will focus and do everything we can to represent the club as best we can,” Van Dijk said about the second leg in the Spanish capital on March 15.
He added, “The only thing we can do is watch what happened, learn from it, and make sure that it does not happen in the next match, which is against Crystal Palace (Saturday in the League in Stage 25). It seems very easy, but it is not, this is the difficult truth.”
He continued, “If you look back in the last two games, we played well (winning against Everton and Newcastle) and that is something we have to focus on as well and not panic.”
Liverpool started strongly on Tuesday evening, leading the goals of its Uruguayan striker Darwin Nunes and Egyptian Mohamed Salah within a quarter of an hour, as Klopp’s team sought revenge for its defeat against Real in the final of last season in Paris.
However, the Brazilian Vinicius Junior returned the royal club to the atmosphere of the match by scoring two goals, to tie the scales 2-2 at the end of the first half, before the “Reds” collapsed after the break.
The other Brazilian, Eder Militao, put the visiting team ahead, before Frenchman Karim Benzema scored twice, raising the score to 5-2.
Van Dyck stressed that Real has “many excellent players in all positions and they can punish you and take advantage of the mistakes you make, and this is what they did, especially in the second half.”
And he added, “It is very clear that we see mistakes (we made) that we should not make, but they happen in football. We are not robots.”
This loss added to the tribulations of the “Reds”, which is going through a bad season in terms of results, as it lost the League Cup and the FA Cup titles and is in eighth place in the Premier League, 7 points behind Tottenham, who finished fourth and last qualified for the Champions League, knowing that He played two games less.
Liverpool also suffers defensively, as it conceded three goals or more in 8 matches this season, and received a new moral blow by injuring its defender Joe Gomez, who left the “Anfield” stadium as a precaution.
Van Dyck considered that the only way out of the crisis is to “stay together,” and concluded, “Everyone feels angry, obviously everyone feels frustrated, but the next match will be in four days (at Palace), so if we want to play there, we have to change.” Quick, fast, that’s what we’re going to do.”
