Virgil van Dijk responds to Mo Salah interview and praises Liverpool players after win over Inter Milan | OneFootball

Virgil van Dijk praised the focus of his Liverpool team-mates following their win over Inter Milan in the Champions League.

Dominik Szoboszlai scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot as the Reds got back to winning ways.

The build up to the game was dominated by Mo Salah’s outspoken interview on Saturday in which he said he felt “thrown under the bus” at the club, which resulted in the forward being left out of the squad for the trip to Milan.

And speaking for the first time about Salah’s interview, van Dijk told Prime Video Sport: “Obviously it’s difficult but it’s a collective difficult situation that we’re all in.

“Obviously between Mo and the club, things are going on and for the consequences he’s not here today to help us try to get the three points and that’s the reality.

“But I don’t think anything changes in terms of our focus, our determination to get results for the football club.”

Asked if Salah needs to apologise, van Dijk replied: “I don’t think I’m the one to speak about whether someone has to apologise for anything.

“I think it’s him airing his feelings, over the past couple of days and that’s something that the club has to deal with, and obviously me as well.

“But if I look at the dressing room, nothing really has changed. The task was that we have a responsibility not only to ourselves but to the whole football club and to all the fans over the world to perform.

“The focus was there. Nothing else has changed and he trained as well, by the way.”

The Liverpool skipper says he plans to speak to Salah about the situation but insists he does not know what the future holds.

“The reality also is that Mo is going to Africa in a week,” van Dijk continued.

“I’ve known Mo for such a long time. We are good friends, we’ve been through highs and lows, he’s been a big part of the success I’ve had at the club in my football career and I’ve been a big part of his success like we all are as part of Liverpool Football Club.

“We’ll speak but those type of things will stay indoors like it should be but we, as a team and players, have to brace ourselves and be ready to be against the outside noise. That’s the only thing we have to be ready for.”

On the win over Inter, the Dutchman said: “It’s a good feeling, the feeling of winning, especially in the period we are in. Trying to find consistency, trying to find something to build on and hopefully tonight is one of those performances.

“Obviously it’s never easy to come here against a very good side. It was always going to be tough but I think we handled the game well. It maybe could have been a 0-0 game in the end but it ended positively for us for once.”