Virgil van Dijk proved his class at Bramall Lane as Liverpool beat Sheffield United 2-0.

Sheffield United just welcomed the return of Chris Wilder after 2 years of his departure. The home team had a good start to the match but fell behind in the first half, when Van Dijk scored the opening goal.

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Mohamed Salah had some great chances to double the Red Brigade’s lead, but was unable to score his 200th goal for the club. Dominik Szoboszlai finally sealed the 2-0 result for the away team thanks to an effort at the end of extra time.

Although Sheffield ultimately failed to win anything from Liverpool, the Blades’ performance was still remarkable and is something that will please Wilder.

Liverpool seemed to be disappointed in the first half when they controlled the ball a lot but could hardly threaten Wes Foderingham’s goal. That was until Van Dijk grabbed a corner kick to score the opener.

The Blades left the towering Dutch defender completely unmarked, easily scoring. But replays showed Anel Ahmedhodzic had stumbled in the scuffle before Van Dijk scored – the Liverpool player appeared to have made contact with him. VAR reviewed the situation but saw no reason to deny the Dutch star’s goal as Liverpool celebrated their opening goal.

After his attack, the Dutchman defended decisively, commanding the Red Brigade’s defense – something that proved crucial until the final stages of the match. Despite the controversial opening goal, the midfielder had a comprehensive performance for coach Jurgen Klopp’s team.

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During 90 minutes on the field, in addition to the important goal, Van Dijk also made many other impressive contributions. He touched the ball 99 times and successfully passed 81/88 passes (92%), including 4/6 long passes. The Dutch captain finished twice, with one success.

He completed his defensive work excellently to receive a score of 8.6 from Sofa Score. Van Dijk had 4 clearances, 1 interception, 1 successful block, and 2 tackles. Virgil won 2/3 of the ground duels and 4/5 of the aerial duels.

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Van Dijk’s contributions helped Liverpool keep a clean sheet and win all 3 points, thereby continuing to closely chase Arsenal. The Gunners are currently leading with 2 points ahead of The Reds. Man City just had another slip and fell to fourth place, the gap with Arsenal has now become 6 points.

Van Dijk has started all 13 matches that he could play for Liverpool this season, entered Sofa Score’s best team of the week 6 times, and has 1 goal and 2 assists. The Reds have returned to the championship race this season, and Virgil’s role will certainly be very important in that journey.