Captain Virgil van Dijk shares his excitement at Liverpool’s return to the Champions League while stressing his side will need to improve against AC Milan after the shock loss to Nottingham Forest
That night Jurgen Klopp’s side went down to a 1-0 defeat to Real Madrid in the Bernabeu as they set about chasing the most unlikely of comebacks after a 5-2 undressing at home the month previous.
A lot has changed since that night in the Spanish capital. Klopp and his backroom staff have gone and the midfield department has been rebuilt, with Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch and Wataru Endo taking the places of Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita.
The scale of the upheaval between the summers of 2023 and 2024 has been enough to label Liverpool as something of a club in transition, particularly when the executive-level movement of CEO of football Michael Edwards, Fenway Sports Group president Mike Gordon and sporting director Richard Hughes is factored into the equation.
New head coach Arne Slot does not immediately seem like the sort of man to wistfully reflect on his own journey, either. The Dutchman has been at his move illuminating and engaging when discussing tactical nuance and in-game management but even he might reserve a quiet moment this week as he prepares to take charge of a club who have won the European Cup six times.
The identity of his opponents and the venue for the showdown might help usher in some extra waves of emotion for Slot as the Reds are welcomed to Italy for a head-to-head against AC Milan for a rerun of the finals of 2005 and 2007.
If Slot will publicly eschew explicit notions of romance when he meets the media at the San Siro on Monday evening, his captain Virgil van Dijk welcomes it with open arms. The Liverpool skipper took a moment to reflect when it was put to him on Saturday afternoon that Tuesday’s game will be his first in the Champions League as club captain.
“[My first Champions League game] as club captain, yeah,” Van Dijk says. “I’ve obviously been captain during games. It’s always a special moment whenever I lead out the boys so Tuesday won’t be any different. It is always amazing to be playing in the Champions League.
