Virgil van Dijk, 31, knows what will happen on Friday (9), at the Lusail stadium. Every Argentine player, when he receives the ball, will have a first impulse: look for where Lionel Messi is.
Just as he was at Barcelona, the seven-time best striker in the world is the main focus of the Argentine national team. This will be repeated when the team faces the Netherlands in the quarterfinals of the World Cup.
The meeting between Messi and van Dijk will be the most anticipated individual clash so far between an attacker and a defender at the World Cup in Qatar.
“The difficult thing about him is that when we are attacking, he is hidden in some corner of the field. You have to be very attentive in the defensive organization because they are always looking for him [para o passe] at the time of the counterattack”, said the defender.
It was the only opinion that van Dijk gave about the number 10 and rival this Friday. He didn’t want to make his contact with the press this Wednesday (7), in a succession of responses about just one player. He left with the thought that it would not be a match between him and Messi. It will be between Holland and Argentina.
The Europeans also train at the University of Qatar, the same place where the South Americans are concentrated.
One of the most consistent defenders in world football, van Dijk had 50 consecutive matches without being dribbled in the Premier League between 2018 and 2019. The streak was interrupted only by Nicolas Pepe in a match between Liverpool (Dutchman’s team) and Arsenal.
“If you are an attacker and you are going to face a team that has van Dijk in the defense, you have to play on top of the other defender”, defined the former English striker Michael Owen, in an interview with Folha in 2019.
It was the time when the Dutchman was at his peak. He was as important to Liverpool’s defense as Salah was to the attack. The two formed the basis of the European champion team that year and that would make Lionel Messi suffer one of the biggest disappointments of his career.
After losing to Barcelona 3-0 at the Camp Nou, with two goals from the Argentine, the English club managed an improbable comeback at home, thrashing 4-0 and advancing to the 2019 Champions League final. Tottenham Hotspur.
It was one of the steps to deepen the economic crisis in the Spanish club. Problems that led, last year, to Messi’s transfer to Paris Saint-Germain.
It will be the first confrontation between them since then.
The string of questions about Messi seemed to make van Dijk uncomfortable. Holland is a team without big offensive stars, like others in the past, but on the rise in the World Cup. Suffered against Ecuador in the group stage, drew 1-1, but defeated Senegal and Qatar. He played his best game in the round of 16, when he beat the United States 3-1.
The defender can be aloof to questions he doesn’t like. At the 2019 Club World Cup, he got irritated when he heard a comment about possible fatigue on the field.
“How do you know you were tired? Have you ever played football?”, he returned.
Other Dutch journalists noted that the defender hates having his physical or technical condition put in check.
“We felt we could have been even better in our last match. We are perfectionists and would have liked to have played better. But it’s good to know that we are still in the competition and in the quarter-finals. There is hunger, desire and feeling that we can get there. [ao título]”, he completed.
Virgil van Dijk knows that this Friday could be a historic moment. The victory of the Netherlands would mean the last game of Lionel Messi in World Cups and he would say goodbye to the tournament without winning his most dreamed title.
The Netherlands, the most famous team to never lift the trophy despite generations of great players, are chasing the same. Three times finalist, ended up defeated in 1974, 1978 and 2010.
Four years later, in 2014, it was Messi and Argentina who put themselves in the way and defeated the team eternally nicknamed the Clockwork Orange in the semifinal of the tournament in Brazil. The nickname is because of the total football of the squad that had as star Johan Cruyff in the 1970s
A game that was marked by goalkeeper Sergio Romero’s saves in the penalty shootout and by the move in which, to avoid Arjen Robben’s goal, Javier Mascherano made a tackle that tore his anus.
“Now everything is different. I know that the fans can be more favorable to them, but it will be nice to play in an environment like that”, he concluded.
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