Everton 1-2 Liverpool: Virgil van Dijk scores in the 10th minute of stoppage time as Arne Slott’s side take all three points and look well-positioned to qualify for the Champions League.
Virgil van Dijk scores the winning goal in the 100th minute for Liverpool (Image: Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Thankfully, Liverpool have long since abandoned their marketing campaign based on the slogan ‘This Means More’. But this means much more to Virgil van Dijk than that, make no mistake about that.
It’s been five-and-a-half years since the Liverpool captain required knee surgery following Jordan Pickford’s challenge at Goodison Park. He has never publicly held a grudge, but his header of the winning goal with 11 minutes left in stoppage time understandably seemed sweet to him.
Indeed, it would be harsh to criticize him for celebrating and gloating in the faces of Everton fans, who predictably responded with missile-throwing anger. But if Van Dijk felt it was a special goal (his sixth of the season) because of what had happened in previous games, he probably also felt it was more important given the season he and his team had had.
Van Dijk hasn’t been consistently at his best and has had to step up to the plate every time they suffer disappointment in Liverpool’s ill-fated Premier League title defence. At times it was clearly painful for him.
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And his victory was decisive not only for parochial reasons, but also for Arne Slott and for Liverpool’s plans. With Chelsea in full swing, Liverpool have seven points in the race for Champions League qualification.
At the end of this weekend, the top five looks pretty much complete and dusted. Had Everton won, they would have kept their hopes of joining that draw alive, and they had a chance here too.
But a bad day was made worse by Everton defender Jarrad Branthwaite, who appeared to have relapsed with a serious hamstring injury and burst into tears as he was carried off on a stretcher late in the second half. Had he not suffered such terrible misfortune, he might have prevented Van Dijk from converting Dominik Szoboszlai’s corner in the 100th minute.
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Virgil van Dijk was the winning card (Image: Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
But if there’s one specific thing Everton can be blamed for the defeat, it’s their failure to take the lead in the opening game, when they had a far greater threat. Manager David Moyes seemed to put the onus on the referee, with manager Chris Kavanagh ruling that Curtis Jones’ nudge to Keenan Dewsbury-Hall inside the penalty area was legal, and actually set the tone for his performance.
Kavanagh certainly didn’t make much of a contribution for Everton, but it wasn’t his fault for Beto’s farcical lack of effort when clean through in a central position. Nor was it his fault that Jake O’Brien was ruled slightly offside in the build-up to what Iliman Ndiaye thought was his first Derby goal on the royal blue banks of the Mersey.
And almost as expected, the VAR intervention was followed by goals for its beneficiaries. Under intense Liverpool pressing, Dwight McNeil gave the ball away to Cody Gakpo, but his pass to Mohamed Salah was first class.
And for a while, it looked as though Salah’s ninth goal of the Merseyside derby – tying him as the game’s all-time leading scorer after Steven Gerrard – would be decisive in instantly deflating Everton’s spirits. That’s why very few people expected Beto to score the equalizer 10 minutes into the second half.
Beto’s equalizer was a double blow for Liverpool (Image: Molly Darlington/Getty Images)
It was a great finish from Beto, from comical to clinical in the space of the game, but he was not tracked properly by Andy Robertson, just as provider Dewsbury Hall was not tracked properly by Ibrahima Konate. While scoring, Beto inadvertently injured Giorgi Mamadashvili, so third-choice keeper Freddie Woodman had to replace him.
With Alisson already sidelined, there is a problem in the slot, but the magnitude of that problem has been greatly reduced by Van Dijk’s header. It was a header that the Dutchman enjoyed immensely.
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