Virgil van Dijk lost the final in the Champions League to Real Madrid on Saturday evening with Liverpool. In Paris, the defender from Breda stepped off the field with a 1-0 defeat.
The fact that Real Madrid won the biggest European club tournament for the fourteenth time in club history was mainly due to Thibout Courtois. It was not the case that the Belgian goalkeeper saw one ball after another, but Courtois was there when needed. With good reflexes he managed to prevent a goal several times, only Mo Salah saw the goalkeeper tap a bet out of the goal a few times.
On the other side of the pitch, the Liverpool defense was a lot calmer. Real Madrid barely came close to the goal. Towards the end of the first half, the Madrilenians appeared to be taking the lead after Karim Benzema caught the ball through Liverpool midfielder Fabinho. The Frenchman scored, but after the intervention of the first linesman, the VAR ruled that it was offside for Benzema.
The goal for Real Madrid came in the second half. Vinicius Jr. tapped the ball into the goal after an hour of play: 1-0. It turned out to be the only shot on goal for the Spanish record champion at the end of the game. Liverpool then went on the hunt for a goal, but the English were unable to force the equalizer even with the increasingly frequent Van Dijk – who wore the captain’s armband after the change of Jordan Henderson. In the final minutes he was on the field as an extra striker, but a real final offensive was not forthcoming.
Third final
For Van Dijk, the match against Real Madrid was his third Champions League final. In 2018, Real Madrid was also too strong for Liverpool. After that lost final, he and his team did win the Cup with the Big Ears a year later. That happened at the expense of Tottenham Hotspur.
With three finals played, Van Dijk is in a nice list with Dutch people who have played a final of the European Cup I or Champions League at least three times. Only sixteen compatriots preceded the center defender, with Clarence Seedorf and Edwin van der Sar leading the way with five finals played.