Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk believes the Netherlands must be at their best mettle if they are to stop Lionel Messi from making any tangible impact.
Recall that Netherlands will face Argentina in the Quarter Finals of the 2022 World Cup on Friday with a place in the semi finals up for grabs.
Messi, 35, has already scored three goals in Qatar including the opener in their 2-1 last-16 win over Australia.
“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.”
“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.
“No one can do it on his own, we will have to come up with a good plan.”
1 Comment
Do your bit, but I don’t believe any of you can ensnare Messi. It would have been nice to see him on the receiving end. This man had humiliated the SE twice, but it is obvious no-one can avenge the hurt for us. We are now looking gloomily for outside help. The SE itself has become so spiritless and shameless (NFF, not players) steeped in corrupt practices, that it has no hope of waking up from a deep stupor to redeem its image. Pity.