Liverpool beat Porto 2-0 in the Champions League quarter-final first-leg on Tuesday and with that their dream of winning the Premier League as well as the Champions League remains very much alive.
A large number of people have claimed that the Reds should focus more on winning the domestic title since they haven’t done so in close to three decades while others claim, Liverpool are more than capable of doing a double.
And this is what Liverpool defender Virgil Van Dijk thinks.
Talking about the possibility of winning both the Premier League as well as the Champions League, the Holland captain has given a word of advice to his fellow teammates who think it is not possible.
“It’s still something we need to believe and do, but if you think about it, what is nine games?” Van Dijk told reporters.
“You have to believe otherwise you can just stay home next time. Go for it.
“We played a tough team, good result, but it’s not over. It’ll be even harder over there [in Porto], but hopefully, we do the job and go to the next round.
“We should be confident anyway, it’s a great time to be a Liverpool player and, hopefully, there are nine games left if everything goes well, fingers crossed.
“We’ll give everything we’ve got then have a well-deserved break after.”
Van Dijk also added that in order to progress to the semi-finals of the Champions League, Liverpool will need to pull up their socks for the second leg vs Porto, this despite going into the match with a 2-0 lead.
“Obviously we know it’s going to be a tough game and to score two good goals was very important but the clean sheet was the most important thing,” the Liverpool defender added.
“We have something to build on. We kept pressing, we kept going – we played very well I think.
“Obviously in the second half they tried to change it up a little bit: some moments of danger, but I don’t think there were any clear chances really.
“But we need to do it a little bit better, especially than in the second half.
“It’s a good result and if we score one (away) then it’s going to be even more difficult for them to go through.
“But the only thing is that we go in there to play our game, so hopefully we will create chances and finish them off.
“It’s going to be tough because their fans are pretty extreme, like here, and I’m definitely going to enjoy that.”
