Virgil van Dijk played for Liverpool for 90 minutes in the Premier League game between his team and Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, January 2, but could not stop Chelsea from equalizing within 5 minutes.
Virgil van Dijk and his teammates traveled to Stamford Bridge with one aim, which is to beat Chelsea to keep their hope of winning the Premier League title alive. They were so fortunate that they scored two goals in the first 26 minutes of the match thanks to goals from Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah.
When it was looking like it was going to be a big win for Liverpool, Chelsea stepped up to score two goals towards the tail end of the first half thanks to goals from Kovacic and Christian Pulisic.
After a box-to-box battle between Liverpool and Chelsea, the Premier League game ended in a 2-2 draw which was a big gain to first-placed Manchester City.
The draw increased the gap between Manchester City and second-placed Chelsea and third-placed Liverpool. As it stands, Man City are 10 points above Chelsea and 11 points above Liverpool that still have a game in hand.
If Liverpool had beaten Chelsea on Sunday, the Merseyside club would have been 9 points below Man City. And if they win their game in hand which is against Leeds United, Liverpool would be 6 points away from Manchester City.
But now, Liverpool would hope that Man City would record at least three defeats and a draw for them to catch up which might be so difficult based on the current form of coach Pep Guardiola’s team.
Despite the current circumstances surrounding the title race, Virgil van Dijk believes Manchester City could drop enough points that could enable Liverpool to overtake the reigning Premier League champions.
However, Virgil van Dijk noted that the 2021-2022 Premier League title is that of Manchester City to lose, adding that Liverpool and Chelsea would continue to focus on themselves in their quest to overtake City.
The Dutch defender said: “For the outside world, it was quite a good game to watch, but we came here for three points and didn’t get them.
“They have an amazing team, so have we. I have a feeling we were under pressure at times but defended well as a team, didn’t give big chances away. I always had a feeling we could score for 3-2 but it didn’t happen…
“It’s never difficult to believe. It’s a big gap, they [Manchester City] maybe have the title to lose, but a lot can happen still.
“We have been there before, where we have had a gap in front and we gave it away, so everything is possible.
“We will focus on ourselves, Chelsea will focus on themselves, and we just have to get results, play good football, and win games. It sounds pretty easy, but it tough, as we saw today.”
The next Premier League game involving Liverpool would come up on January 16 against Brentford. Unfortunately for Liverpool, they will go into the game without their two most important players, Sadio Mane of Senegal and Mohamed Salah of Egypt who have joined their countries ahead of the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
After the 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge, Van Dijk took to his Twitter page to share his good wishes to his teammates: Mane, Salah, and Naby Keita of Guinea who have left the club for AFCON which will commence on January 9, 2022, in Cameroon.
First game of 2022 and it was an intense one. Points shared tonight. We will keep going. Good luck to our African players at AFCON, make us proud! 💪🏽 pic.twitter.com/Rro0Rv1qsX
— Virgil van Dijk (@VirgilvDijk) January 2, 2022
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