More than 24 hours after winning the Carabao Cup, Liverpool fans will still be celebrating one of their best nights under Jurgen Klopp.
The Reds were hit with injuries throughout the squad, with a number of big-name players missing, including Trent Alexander-Arnold, Darwin Nunez, Mohamed Salah and Diogo Jota, to name a few.
In these moments, you need your senior players to step up, stick their chests out and prove their worth. That’s what Virgil van Dijk did on the Wembley stage on Sunday and it left Jude Bellingham impressed.
The Liverpool captain led from the front by, not only scoring the winning goal in stoppage time but picking up the Man of the Match award for his defensive performance.
It even resulted in Richard Keys changing his mind about the defender and how he previously felt ‘he spent too much time thinking about himself’, as he told beIN SPORTS (25/02/24 at 5:50 pm).
The presenter added that accusation has also been levelled at Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes, but he feels Liverpool’s man with the armband ‘led from the front’ against Chelsea.
The fact that the Reds had to play a number of their academy stars made this win that much sweeter for the boys from Merseyside.
Virgil van Dijk guides Liverpool to Carabao Cup trophy
“The kids didn’t win it,” said Keys. “The goalkeeper and the centre-backs won it.
“I think Klopp has previously described him as the best number two in the world. We have evidence of that. Fantastic.
“I didn’t think he (van Dijk) was a captain. I thought he spent too much time thinking about himself rather than the team. That’s an accusation levelled at Fernandes as well. But he was definitely leading from the front.”
One of Virgil van Dijk’s best performances
The 32-year-old has won the lot during his time at Anfield and put in some stellar performances in the biggest of games.
But given the circumstances, this was probably one of his best-ever performances because he had so much inexperience around him.
Not only that, Liverpool didn’t let up because they continued to push forward in numbers and van Dijk, alongside Ibrahima Konate, somehow managed to keep Chelsea at bay.
Yes, there was an element of luck involved, but at the end of the day, all that matters is the end result and that reads ‘Liverpool are 2024 Carabao Cup winners’.
The post ’Accusation at Bruno Fernandes’: Richard Keys changes mind about Liverpool defender after cup win appeared first on HITC.
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