Van Dijk issues Liverpool rallying cry with semi-final only ‘half-time’

Virgil van Dijk has said he is ‘looking forward’ to the challenge of turning around Liverpool’s Carabao Cup semi-final with Tottenham next month.

Liverpool lost for the first time since September on Wednesday night, after the Reds were beaten 1-0 at Tottenham. Lucas Bergvall scored the only goal of the game as Spurs took an advantage in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final tie.

Lucas Bergvall with the winner 👏 pic.twitter.com/5R6y7DF5Px

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) January 8, 2025

A frustrated Liverpool felt aggrieved after the teenager’s winner, with Bergvall having controversially avoided a second booking just moments before the decisive moment.

Arne Slot’s side were below their best in North London and returned to Merseyside with their 24-game unbeaten run ended.

Van Dijk, however, is choosing to remain upbeat with Liverpool possessing another 90 minutes to turn the tie around. Speaking at full-time, the Dutch defender said the squad are ‘looking forward’ to the return.

“I think we created good moments [and] good opportunities at times – not really clear-cut chances in my opinion, but still enough that we could have scored.

“Unfortunately we didn’t. It’s quite cliched but it’s half-time now and I’m looking forward to the game back at Anfield.

“I’m not sure we were a level or two [below our best] but obviously at times I think we could have done better.

“But that’s part of football as well: you try to play your best game ever, every one of us, and at times we played through them nicely and we created some one-v-ones on the side and we created some dangerous moments.

“But they were able to defend it much better than they did when we played here a couple of weeks ago. And, yeah, we move on – we take it on the chin.

“Like I said, it’s half-time and we have another 90-plus minutes to go and like I said, I am really looking forward to that.”

The second leg of the semi-final will take place at Anfield on February 6th, with kick-off at 8pm GMT. The winners of the tie will face either Newcastle or Arsenal at Wembley on Match 16th. Newcastle lead 2-0 from the first leg of that tie.