Virgil van Dijk hails Liverpool’s ‘togetherness’ in PSG win

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has hailed the togetherness of his team in their 1-0 victory over Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday but insists they will have to “fight” in next week’s second leg in order to secure qualification for the quarterfinals of the Champions League.

Substitute Harvey Elliott scored a late winner for Liverpool at the Parc des Princes after PSG had dominated the first leg of their round-of-16 tie.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia thought he had given the hosts the lead in the first half before his curling effort was ruled out for offside, while Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker turned in an heroic display to preserve his side’s clean sheet.

“I think you could see, it was not a usual game we like to play because we obviously like to dominate as well,” Van Dijk said after the match.

“We like to have more influence, especially with the ball, than we had but we knew before the game this could be a scenario in terms of the fact, they could have the ball a lot more and we would have to find a way to create chances.

“At times you saw it could be wide open if you made the right decisions but most of it was defending as one unit and stopping them from scoring and Ali [Alisson] obviously played a big part in that.

“What I really liked was the togetherness, everyone put a shift in, and we know everyone can be better.

“We don’t want to be playing this way because everyone who plays football wants to have the ball a lot and wants to be dominating opponents but we played against a team with a lot of quality, world-class quality and they made it very difficult for everyone in the world so far and they made it difficult for us but we found a way and we have to try to finish it off next week.

“It will be a difficult task but we are at home with our fans and we have to fight — and we will.”

Reflecting on Alisson’s display, Van Dijk added: “Listen, he’s the best goalkeeper in the world — I’ve mentioned it many times in the past and he showed it again on the biggest stage.

“A lot of shots from distance but he was there to save us and we put ourselves in a good position for next week but we all know this is far from over.

“They are an outstanding team with an outstanding manager and they come to Liverpool with the belief they can turn this around and we have to be ready for a very big task and we will be.”