Virgil van Dijk insists that revenge against Real Madrid won’t be a factor in his motivation when Liverpool face the Champions League holders at Anfield on Wednesday.
The Reds’ captain also revealed the key preparatory work taking place during this crucial week, which also includes a high-stakes clash with Manchester City on Sunday.
Liverpool have yet to beat Los Blancos in eight attempts, managing just one draw during that stretch – a goalless stalemate at Anfield behind closed doors in the 2020-21 Champions League quarter-finals, a tie that saw the Spanish giants advance 3-1 on aggregate.
Although Van Dijk was absent from those matches, he has experienced four defeats to Madrid as a Liverpool player, including in the 2018 and 2022 Champions League finals in Kiev and Paris.
Despite his personal disappointment from those encounters, the Reds captain insists that he is not relying on those painful memories to fuel his performance when Carlo Ancelotti’s side visit on Wednesday.
“To be absolutely honest with you, I don’t need fuel [of revenge] to be absolutely ready,” Van Dijk said.
“But it’s the Champions League, it’s a massive game, a beautiful fixture for the neutral and we want to be on top and come out of it with a win.
“Listen, the fact is that I have never beaten them.
“That record (no wins in eight) is a very disappointing stat so it’s down to recovery and getting ready for a big one and I am looking forward to it.”
“An important start to a big week? Let’s hope so,” Virgil van Dijk added.
“It was always going to be difficult after the break, it is never an easy game and you have to get back into it and back to what we want to do, tactically, defending, so the first half was not good but we turned it around with more energy, more dominance on the ball and the three points is all that matters.
“I think we have to find a way to win and we did in the second half, we kept pushing. In my opinion we deserved a win. It was very difficult to play against, they take risks in possession and you have to be strong to keep going and like I said, we found a way to win and now we focus on Wednesday.
“It’s not all about focusing but it’s a big part of it and at times we had to be ready to suffer because there was always going to be times when they broke through the press and then we’d have to do it together. So I am pleased with the three points.”
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