Virgil van Dijk has acknowledged that the Netherlands need a special strategy to deal with Lionel Messi and keep an eye on him while the Dutch attack is in progress.
In their nations’ quarterfinal World Cup matchup on Friday, Van Dijk and the Argentinian star Messi will square off.
Lionel Messi has scored three goals in Qatar, including in a 2-1 victory over Australia in the round of 16.
The Liverpool defender is well aware that even when Messi appears to be doing nothing, he can sneak into areas and punish the opponent.
What Van Dijk Said About Lionel Messi
‘The difficult thing about him is when we are attacking, he is chilling somewhere in a corner or something,’ said Van Dijk.
‘You have to be so very sharp in terms of defensive organisation. They always looked for him to try to make it difficult for us on the counter.’
🗣️ Virgil Van Dijk: “The tricky thing about Messi is that when we attack, he walks somewhere into a corner or something like that. We’ll have to be very sharp in terms of defensive organization.” pic.twitter.com/dsCe0ldOzt
— Barça Worldwide (@BarcaWorldwide) December 6, 2022
‘It is an honour to play against him,’ he added. ‘It is not me against him, or the Netherlands against him, but the Netherlands against Argentina.
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‘No one can do it on his own, we will have to come up with a good plan.’
Van Dijk has come up against Messi before, notably in 2019 when Liverpool overcame a 3-0 first-leg deficit – in which Messi scored twice – to reach the Champions League final.
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