Adrian Durham was highly critical of Virgil van Dijk’s defending before Lautaro Martinez’s stunning long-range effort cut the aggregate deficit in half.
The Argentine unleashed a fierce effort from outside of the box that found the top-right corner of the net, well beyond Alisson Becker’s reach.
“World’s best defender? Just dangling a leg and letting Martinez shoot?” this comes from talkSPORT’s Adrian Durham (via Sportbible).
“Does he not realise how good Martinez is? He got a hat-trick at the weekend!
“Unbelievably bad defending from Van Dijk. It’s not often you get to say that.”
It wasn’t meant to be for the Serie A outfit, however, with Liverpool holding firm to ensure a 2-1 aggregate scoreline, which saw the Reds through to the next round of the Champions League knockout stages.
In our No.4’s defence, we don’t particularly see him at fault for the goal in question, with the Dutchman often tending to not rush into tackles in a careless fashion.
Indeed, rare is it the case that both defender and ‘keeper are beaten by an effort as spectacular as the Arsenal-linked attacker’s.
Credit is more than due to Martinez for the shot, though that doesn’t then mean fault must be apportioned to his marker in Van Dijk.
#Ep38 of The Red Nets Podcast: Dissecting a Trent myth, previewing Inter Milan… and more!
Who is through to the quarter – finals? Uuuuuhhhhmm NOT Inter!!!!!