Liverpool captain Van Dijk admits Chelsea ‘deserved’ win | OneFootball

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has said Chelsea ‘deserved’ the win after beating the champions 3-1 at Stamford Bridge.

Liverpool lost just the third time in the Premier League this season with the Reds second-best in the capital.

Chelsea applauded Liverpool onto the pitch with a traditional guard of honour but the goodwill did not last long. A well-worked Chelsea goal opened the scoring inside three minutes, as Enzo Fernandez finished off a quick transition from the home side.

Jarell Quansah’s own goal saw the Blues’ deservedly double their lead, as Van Dijk’s attempted clearance crashed in off his teammate. Van Dijk halved the deficit six minutes from time, only for Chelsea to restore their cushion in added time. Quansah’s clumsy challenge brought down Moises Caicedo and Cole Palmer stepped up to convert.

Van Dijk admitted a rotated Liverpool team were far from their best in a disappointing, if inconsequential, defeat.

“I think possession was quite good, but when we didn’t have the ball the pressing wasn’t great and they could find between the lines,” Van Dijk said, speaking to Sky Sports.

“To concede that early is not great, but if we start to play the way we want to play then we can create chances. There was chances for us to score – in the end they deserve the win. That’s the disappointing thing as we came here to win.

“Obviously we tried, but it wasn’t great.

“The way we trained, the sharpness that we had, everyone was ready for it.

“We know it was going to be tough at times. We could have done better in the way we defended as a team, but we will analyse it tomorrow and prepare for the next game.”

Van Dijk was full of praise for Chelsea, whose rotations caused problems for Liverpool all afternoon.

“They rotate a lot. Moises Caicedo plays as a right-back, but he’s a midfielder. They try to rotate a lot, it needs a lot of communication and yes, you know, there will be difficult moment and defeat hurts.

“We are very fortunate that we didn’t lose that many games in the league and this hurts. And it should hurt.

“Even when the job is done we came here to try get a good result. It has to hurt. I’m definitely disappointed.”

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