Van Dijk on Lionel Messi: "He is the best player in the world, I have said that before"
Tuesday 30 April 2019 13:02, UK
Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk wants to erase the memory of his only other appearance at the Nou Camp when Liverpool face Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on Wednesday.
The newly-crowned Professional Footballers' Association Players' Player of the Year was a member of the Celtic team humiliated 6-1 in December 2013 - they were 6-0 down after 72 minutes - with Lionel Messi not even playing.
There is no chance of Messi being absent on Wednesday night, with the Argentina international handed generous periods of rest by coach Ernesto Valverde in the games leading up to the first leg, but Van Dijk is still relishing the prospect.
"It is a nice stadium, an historic stadium and for me it was a great experience to play over there," he said.
"It was my first time, my only time and my last time so far, so I am looking forward to playing them again, one of the best teams in the world, but I think this can be totally different than when I was there the last time."
Van Dijk came away with plenty of plaudits despite that result, but admits he remains unhappy with the performance.
"I saw some videos, but if you are losing 6-1, as a defender, you can't say you had a good game," he added.
"But the good thing for me personally was I took a lot of experience from that night and that helped me, obviously."
Van Dijk believes Barcelona's talisman, Messi, is the best player in the world but says he will not be solely responsible for keeping the versatile attacker quiet.
"Yeah, I think he is the best player in the world, I have said that before," he said.
"But you see how we play, how we defend, we don't defend one versus one, we defend all together and we attack all together as well - so we will see. We will be ready.
"The situation is that we are in the semi-final against Barcelona and we are going to face one of the best players... I think the best player in the world.
"But it is not only him, the whole team has a lot of quality and we will prepare well and that is what we are going to do.
"We have also a very good team so we can compete there as well so it is not like we are going there for a holiday or something."
