Virgil van Dijk a target again as Liverpool captain sends new emphatic response to critics
Virgil van Dijk has grown used to being a target in recent times. So he wouldn't have been surprised at having a laser pen shone in his face as he stepped up to provide a dramatic denouement in Athens on Monday night.
Despite the attempt at distraction, Van Dijk held his nerve to slot home from the penalty spot and earn Holland a vital Euro 2024 qualifying triumph against Greece to keep alive their hopes of reaching the finals in Germany next summer.
Having already won a penalty that was subsequently spurned by former Manchester United man Wout Weghorst in the first half, it was perhaps a case of Van Dijk, captain of his country as well as Liverpool, taking matters into his own hands.
And the manner in which he converted - shades of his nerveless finish in the League Cup final shoot-out victory against Chelsea last year - would have surely felt that much sweeter for the centre-back given the increasing levels of criticism he has been receiving from the more myopic of Dutch dissenters.
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That, though, has only replicated the noise that has surrounded the centre-back for much of the last 12 months at Liverpool.
It can all be traced back to an incident just 11 minutes into the Merseyside derby three years ago today when Van Dijk suffered cruciate ligament damage after being on the receiving end of a reckless but unpunished challenge from Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, ruling him out for the remainder of the season and the following summer's European Championships.
The narrative, though, that Van Dijk has subsequently become a busted flush is simply
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