Manchester City poster-boy Erling Haaland has lavished praise on to Liverpool centre-back Virgil van Dijk.
In an interview with Optus Sport, the Norwegian striker admitted that it is a challenge to go toe-to-toe against the Dutch defender.
Erling Haaland has famously pinpointed how brilliant of a player Virgil van Dijk is and has done so again.
Erling Haaland raves about Virgil van Dijk
After Pep Guardiola’s side won their fifth Premier League title in the last six seasons, the Reds colossus sent Kevin De Bruyne a congratulatory message on Instagram.
While both City and Liverpool have locked horns for much of both Guardiola and Klopp’s reigns, there seems to be a sense of mutual respect between both clubs.
To the extent that Erling Haaland had no qualms in admitting that Virgil van Dijk is the toughest centre-back he has come up against in the Premier League.
“There’s many good defenders. I have to say, Liverpool’s Van Dijk is so good. I’ve met him many times with [the] national team, played in Salzburg, met him, he’s really good. That’s who I can think of right now.”
Erling Haaland cannot say the same for most defenders on the planet
It is a testament to the Dutchman’s excellence that Erling Haaland rates him as highly as he does, with the former doing a job on the latter during Liverpool’s 1-0 win against Manchester City at Anfield this season.
However, it would not be a shock to see Haaland seek revenge by giving Van Dijk a nightmare of a time when he faces him in the following campaign.
A majority of defenders in the league and in Europe have been on the opposite end of the prolific goalscorer’s wrath and it has been a day to forget for them.
At just 22 years of age, Erling Haaland has already found a number of ways to dismantle defences and that is unlikely to stop anytime soon.
