Virgil van Dijk speaks out after Jamie Carragher’s Real Madrid rant

Virgil van Dijk has revealed the pain and “anger” that plagued the Liverpool dressing room after Tuesday night’s humiliating 5-2 Champions League defeat at the hands of old rivals Real Madrid. The Reds are now facing an “impossible task” to turn things around at the Bernabeu in three weeks time and there is now growing concern that the humiliating display could prove to be yet another costly bump in Liverpool’s rollercoaster season.

A host of wretched high-profile errors gifted Real Madrid a number of their goals at Anfield as the European champions ruthlessly dismantled the Reds after going two goals behind inside the opening 14 minutes.

Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher was furious with the display as he berated some of the sub-standard individual performances out on the Anfield turf – including talismanic central defender Van Dijk.

Speaking during his punditry work for CBS Sports, Carragher had even claimed he would get into Jurgen Klopp’s side over Van Dijk on the basis of his current form – comments he has since labelled “tongue in cheek” on his Twitter account.

The Dutchman knows better than anyone that Liverpool’s shaky defensive display was simply not up to scratch as he detailed his personal frustration at the sickening defeat that leaves them staring Champions League elimination in the face.

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“We were 2-0 up and we gave it away because of the mistakes we made against Real Madrid – who punish you immediately. That is the hard reality,” Van Dijk explained.

“The only thing we can do in this case is watch it and make sure it doesn’t happen in the next game we play, which is Crystal Palace. It sounds pretty easy but it isn’t – but that’s the hard reality.”

Liverpool had led through Darwin Nunez’s brilliant flick before Mohamed Salah doubled their advantage following a rare mishap from Thibaut Courtois.

But Real Madrid soon hit back as Vinicius Junior struck twice before half-time as he punished a lacklustre pass from Alisson to stun the silent Kop.

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Carlo Ancelotti’s men then asserted their dominance as Eder Militao and Karim Benzema (scored twice) profited from some abysmal Liverpool marking and defending.

It now leaves Liverpool with a mountain to climb and although they have been here before in the Champions League, they can no longer lean on the power of Anfield to bail them out of trouble as they prepare for the return leg in Spain.

“Everyone is angry, everyone is obviously disappointed. And the way we lost, almost not giving ourselves a chance in Madrid, is tough. It’s hard that we have almost an impossible job in Madrid,” Van Dijk added.

“It is difficult, but it is the hard reality and something we have to deal with, we have to deal with as a group, as a unit.

“It’s not been the easiest season so far but the only way to get out of it is to stick together and that’s the message – even after now.”

Although there were a handful of below-par performances, it was a particularly tough night for Van Dijk and his centre-back partner Joe Gomez, who was torn to shreds by Los Blancos captain Benzema.

But Van Dijk jumped to the defence of his Liverpool colleagues, claiming they are only human and unfortunately, are susceptible to mistakes.

“We’re not robots,” he said regrettably. “It is pretty clear to see [we made] mistakes that we shouldn’t make, but the only thing we can do is learn from it and focus on the next one – and don’t be in panic. Obviously we are all disappointed we lost, that is how we should be.”

Liverpool now travel to Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday as they look to continue their fine domestic form.

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