VIRGIL VAN DIJK says that Holland have to conjure up a plan to stop Lionel Messi from “chilling” on Friday.
The Dutch are preparing to face Argentina in the World Cup quarter-final in two days’ time.
AlamyVirgil van Dijk says the Dutch must plan to stop Lionel Messi ‘chilling’[/caption]
The Argentina legend already has three goals at the World Cup for his nationRex
The Liverpool star will come face-to-face with the legendary forward as the two nations battle it out for a semi-final place.
Messi, 35, has already scored three goals at the tournament and is looking to finally get his hands on the World Cup – the one prize that has eluded him in his epic career.
Van Dijk spoke to the media on Wednesday ahead of the showdown about the threat of the Paris Saint-Germain attacker.
And he knows full well that Messi is capable of looking like he is doing very little before bursting into lift and drifting into spaces to punish the opposition.
The 31-year-old defender said: “The difficult thing about him is when we are attacking, he is chilling somewhere in a corner or something.
“You have to be so very sharp in terms of defensive organisation.
“They always looked for him to try to make it difficult for us on the counter.”
Van Dijk added: “It is an honour to play against him.
BETTING SPECIAL – BEST WORLD CUP BETTING OFFERS AND FREE BETS
“It is not me against him, or the Netherlands against him, but the Netherlands against Argentina.
“No one can do it on his own, we will have to come up with a good plan.”
Van Dijk and Messi have come up against each other previously, the most-notable being in the 2019 Champions League semi-final.
Messi scored twice to put Barcelona into a 3-0 first-leg lead but Liverpool famously came back to win the second-leg 4-0.
