Wayne Rooney blasted Virgil van Dijk of “lazy” defence for PSG’s winning goal as Liverpool were knocked out of the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Liverpool carried a one-goal advantage to Anfield for the second leg of their Champions League round of 16 fixture against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday, but Ousmane Dembele was quick to draw the French side level on aggregate as he scored the opener in the 12th minute of the match. The goal proved pivotal for the French champions, who eventually progressed to the quarter-finals after a 4-1 penalty shootout victory.
Ex-Manchester United star and pundit Wayne Rooney was extremely critical of Reds talisman Van Dijk as he claimed that the Dutchman didn’t make enough effort to stay with Dembele before his decisive goal. Speaking on Amazon Prime, Rooney said: “This goal from Liverpool’s point of view is wrong in so many different ways. They are trying to press the ball, Van Dijk gets lazy. If you watch Van Dijk, he leaves a massive gap [to Dembele]. If you switch off for one second at this level, you get punished.”
The 39-year-old also claimed that the Ligue 1 giants deserved to progress to the next round as they were the better side over the two legs. “When you lose in a penalty shoot-out, it hurts – it’s cruel when you lose on penalties. PSG, I think, over the two legs, were probably the better team… probably deserved to go through and will be delighted. The penalties were fantastic. You can see PSG have worked on their penalties,” Rooney added.
