Liverpool could only watch on last night as the Champions League delivered another excellent night of football.
The Reds have become used to being involved during these, latter stages of the competition over recent years. Having failed to qualify last year though, they’re spectators in 2023/24.
And last night, there was one game that really got the pulse racing: Barcelona vs PSG. Two of Europe’s true heavyweight sides going face-to-face in the quarter-final. Liverpool have played both over recent seasons, putting them to the sword at Anfield.
And according to Thierry Henry, the Reds captain Virgil van Dijk would not have looked out of place in yesterday’s game either.
After a poor season in 2022/23, Van Dijk has regained his crown as the best defender in the game this term. And having seen a Barca player make a crucial error at Camp Nou last night, Henry has compared how he’d have expected to see Liverpool’s No.4 react in the same situation.
Thierry Henry makes Joao Cancelo comparison
The mistake Henry was referring to was seeing Joao Cancelo take Ousmane Dembele down in the box for a PSG penalty. The foul gave Kylian Mbappe the chance to put PSG ahead in the tie with half an hour left. The Frenchman duly took it.
It was a rash moment from Cancelo, who didn’t need to dive in. With Dembele’s touch taking him outside of the box and away from goal, it was a really unnecessary challenge.
And speaking to TNT Sports after the game had got away from his old side, Henry said you’d never catch Van Dijk being caught out in the same manner as the £60m man.
“You don’t even have to tackle on that one!” said the frustrated pundit. “Just stand your ground, go with him and stand your ground. But how can you develop the brain of someone at a particular moment to react to that exact thing?
“You can’t recreate that in training. You can’t recreate the crowd, you can’t recreate you’re down to 10 men, you can’t recreate you’re scared that they could come back in the game.
“People will stay calm or not, for example I don’t think Van Dijk tackles there, because he is calm as a human being from the start, but I don’t think everybody is like that.”
What else happened in the Champions League last night
With Liverpool out of the Champions League for a season, some Reds fans may have been living in sweet ignorance as to what’s been going on in the competition. Well, allow us to enlighten you.
Along with PSG’s emphatic win over Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund also dumped out a Spanish team last night. Despite winning the first-leg 2-1 in Madrid, Atletico couldn’t hold on in Germany, beaten 4-2 in the end.
Those results mean that PSG and Dortmund will face off in the semi-final, with the Black and Yellows aiming for a first final since a certain Jurgen Klopp led them to Wembley in 2013.
The other side of the draw takes place tonight. Bayern will be looking to join their compatriots in the semis and should be slight favourites after earning a 2-2 draw away at Arsenal last week. Man City vs Real Madrid is the other tie, with the score standing at 3-3. We’ll be back next year everyone, enjoy it while you can.