Wayne Rooney calls out 'lazy' Virgil van Dijk for decisive moment in Liverpool defeat to PSG
Liverpool crashed out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage with Tuesday evening’s defeat to French side Paris Saint-Germain and not everyone was happy with Virgil van Dijk
by Daniel Orme · The MirrorWayne Rooney was in no doubt which "lazy" Liverpool star was at fault for their Champions League exit: Virgil van Dijk.
The Reds crashed out of Europe on Wednesday at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain. After winning the first-leg 1-0 in the French capital, Arne Slot’s side slipped to defeat at Anfield as Ousmane Dembele scored the winner.
Neither side was able to get on the scoresheet during the remainder of the game and extra-time, with penalties deciding the clash. Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones both failed to convert.
But Rooney believes Liverpool’s exit stretches back to Dembele’s goal and suggested Van Dijk could have done far more to prevent it. Speaking on Amazon Prime Video, the Manchester United icon said: “This goal from Liverpool’s perspective is wrong in so many ways.
“They are trying to press the ball and Van Dijk gets lazy. If you keep your eye on Van Dijk, he’s walking and leaves a massive gap to Dembele. All he has to do is come across and cover Dembele because there is no other pass for Paris to get out and he doesn’t.
“Dembele gets it and he’s got a lot of space, gets the ball out wide and then Konate doesn’t switch on and then he reacts. Dembele makes a good run and gets a tap in.”
Van Dijk spoke out after Liverpool’s defeat and refused to dwell on their exit, instead urging his teammates to refocus ahead of this weekend’s Carabao Cup final against Newcastle. He said: “It’s part of football.
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“I said to the guys ‘you can be disappointed because we are out of the competition, but chin up’. Now we get ready for the next challenge at the weekend which is a beautiful one.
"I think we were pretty good today as well, and you want to go as far as possible, but we knew when we drew PSG it was going to be very difficult. We saw in Paris when we struggled but we won, and today we saw a very good Liverpool side but we're out of the competition.
"Today from the first second and then extra time, when fatigue kicks in for both sides, it becomes more open but especially regular time, we showed a very good game. We can speak about the game for ages but we're out of the competition, that is the reality."
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