Van Dijk has ‘given Liverpool Champions League football’ as pundit ‘can’t see them losing it’ | OneFootball

Pat Nevin feels Liverpool have confirmed Champions League football again next season, as the pundit “can’t see them losing it from here.”

Liverpool have little to play for at this point in the season. They’re out of the FA Cup and were recently dumped out of the Champions League, with holders Paris Saint-Germain beating them 4-0 on aggregate in the quarter-finals.

With the Premier League to get five UCL spots for next season, the end of Liverpool’s season will be spent attempting to secure their spot in the elite European competition.

At 1-1 against Everton in the 100th minute of the game, the Reds might have felt they’d let an opportunity to cement fifth place slip, after Chelsea, in sixth, lost on Saturday.

But in the 101st minute of the game, with Jordan Pickford pinned by red shirts, Virgil van Dijk rose to secure three points and a seven-point gap to the Blues. Liverpool remain three points behind fourth-placed Aston Villa, who won a stunner, 4-3 against Sunderland.

Nevin said on BBC Radio 5 Live: “It’s hard to say who deserved it.

“I think a draw would have been the fair result but it’s nothing to do with fairness. Liverpool have got gears to go through.

“Virgil van Dijk had a very good game today. It’s van Dijk again, it’s Mo Salah again and they have broken Everton hearts.

“That header. I think, has given Liverpool Champions League football for next season. I cannot see them losing it from here.”

Indeed, had Liverpool only drawn against Everton, they’d have been on 53 points, with five games remaining this season.

That would have left just a five-point gap to Chelsea, which is more conceivable to close than seven points in five games.

But that gap now means Chelsea must win two more games than Liverpool and pick up an extra draw.

The Reds do indeed have a pretty tough run between now and the end of the season, with matches against Manchester United, Chelsea themselves and Aston Villa, consecutively.

The match against the Reds might be the toughest test Chelsea have left this term, but they also have one extra game, as they’re still in the FA Cup, while the visit of relegation-threatened Tottenham could be tough, with the rivals having an awful lot to play for.