Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk proud of team effort as hard-fought 2-0 away win over Inter Milan puts Reds on brink of quarter-finals
Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah (2nd from right) scores against Inter at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium in Milan on Wednesday. Pic/Getty Images
Liverpool put one foot in the Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday with a 2-0 win at Inter Milan which came after a hard-fought encounter at a bubbling San Siro.
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Firmino, Salah score
Goals from Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah in the last quarter of an hour gave Liverpool a commanding lead ahead of the Last 16 second leg at Anfield in three weeks’ time.
Virgil van Dijk and Roberto Firmino
The result was harsh on Italian champions Inter, who dominated the contest in front of a passionate home crowd for long periods after the break and struck the woodwork through Hakan Calhanoglu in the 16th minute. However, they could not find their way past a Liverpool backline impeccably marshalled by Virgil van Dijk and were punished late on by a Reds team who have now won their last seven matches in all competitions. “Tough place to come, a very good team, difficult to break down and I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the crowd. A good result to take back to Anfield,” Van Dijk said to BT Sport.
“Everyone expects to be under pressure, it is the Champions League. The message before was you need to be ready to suffer and do the hard work. It is a very good performance, clean sheet and happy days.”
The last eight now looks a step too far for Inter after making the last 16 of the Champions League for the first time in a decade, leaving Juventus as Italy’s only real hope of success in the competition.
‘We deserved to win’
“I think it was a good match and we should be proud of the way we played against one of the best teams in the world. For 65-70 minutes we deserved to win,” Inter coach Simone Inzaghi told reporters after the match.
Inzaghi’s side started with all the enthusiasm expected of a team back in the knockouts after such a long time away and Lautaro Martinez got the crowd on their feet in the fifth minute with a long-range effort which flew just wide.
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