Virgil van Dijk’s header gave Liverpool a 1-0 win over Sunderland, with Steven Gerrard admitting the win was important in their bid to qualify for the Champions League.
Virgil van Dijk spoke about Liverpool’s win over Sunderland (Image: (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images))
Steven Gerrard backed Virgil van Dijk’s assessment that Liverpool’s 1-0 win over Sunderland proved crucial in their bid for Champions League qualification, but stressed that significant improvement was still needed. The Reds bounced back at the Stadium of Light after losing 2-1 to Manchester City at Anfield last Sunday.
Sitting sixth with 42 points, every mistake weighs heavily on their European football ambitions. Still, Van Dijk’s winning header put Liverpool ahead of Brentford and they will face leaders Arsenal on Thursday night.
Liverpool are currently trailing Chelsea by two points, while the Blues remain in fifth place, a position that seems good enough to qualify for the Champions League. After the final whistle, the Dutch captain told TNT Sports: “There’s no denying that it (the win) feels huge, but we still have 12 games to go and we have to keep improving to find consistency.”
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“We have to continue to grow, stay healthy, have confidence and continue to improve. Today was a great step forward with and without the ball, so now we’re recovering.”
As a pundit, Gerrard shared Van Dijk’s opinion and stressed that great progress had been made. “It was a great night,” he said. “They are chasing Champions League qualification, which is very important for them. Tonight they came here under pressure and they totally deserved the win.”
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“They won from a set-piece. It was a great header from Van Dijk. He came forward again. It was huge for Liverpool. I think defensively they have improved a lot.”
The result was the Reds’ first clean sheet since a goalless stalemate at Arsenal in early January. In their next four Premier League games, Arne Slott’s side conceded five goals, a huge boost to the Reds and their chances going into the season.
Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk scores in victory over Sunderland (Image: (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images))
This ended Sunderland’s unbeaten home run and was an important win for Liverpool looking to move on and find some form. So Slott told reporters after the win at Northeastern that he was happy with his team’s performance, even though it was a close game in point difference.
“I didn’t feel like it was a struggle at all, because I think we played really, really, really well again,” the coach said. “We weren’t facing the weather, we were playing at home to Sunderland who were unbeaten until tonight.
“They’re a good team, they have a good manager and they have a difficult style of play to play against, because as you can see from the games we played against them at home, there are a lot of long balls that you have to defend and a lot of balls that go into the channels. I think we did that really well.”
“We controlled the second ball really well and we played really good football from that second ball. What we’re getting more and more used to now is missing a lot of chances, and that was the case tonight.”
“But compared to all the other games we played against promoted teams and teams above us, the big exception for us tonight was that we didn’t score from set-pieces. Usually we concede one goal, but tonight we were able to score. That was the difference for us in this game.”
On paper, the Reds are doing well, with fixtures against Nottingham Forest, West Ham, Wolves and Tottenham (four of the bottom five teams) coming up. This could give Liverpool the points they need to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
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