Virgil van Dijk has given his assessment of Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday.
The Reds suffered their first defeat of the season as Premier League action resumed at Anfield.
The game turned shortly after the hour mark when Ryan Gravenberch was sent off for a second yellow card, before Erling Haaland and Jeremy Doku scored in quick succession.
Rayan Cherki added a third late on to seal the victory for City.
Speaking to Sky Sports post-match, Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk reflected: “I think the first half was good on our side, we showed a lot of intensity.
“We could have done maybe better on some occasions where we got on the break with them. I don’t think there were massive chances, to be fair, but I think we showed that we wanted to win.
“We had a lot of intensity; that was the bare minimum.
“Second half, we tried to do the same. Unfortunately, the red card obviously changed a big part of the game, especially when you concede that quickly afterwards as well.”
Asked if Gravenberch was ‘unfortunate’ to be dismissed, Van Dijk added: “Probably, yeah. But the matter of fact is he gets a second yellow.
“I think it was interesting there was also a couple of occasions where players were asking for different yellow cards and we had one in the first minute that was cautioned by it, Ronald Araujo, and others weren’t cautioned.
“The matter of fact is we end up with 10 men and then concede pretty quickly after that. Then it becomes a very difficult game against them again.”
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