Jamie Carragher was full of praise for Virgil van Dijk against Inter Milan - but has dug out one major mistake.
The Liverpool star was one of the top performers in their Champions League tie on Tuesday night.
But the Dutchman could only watch as Lautaro Martinez’s strike whistled past him and into the top corner to leave Alisson with no chance.
It was the only goal of the match as Liverpool were downed at home for the first time for nearly a year, 7 March 2021, while ending a run of 28 unbeaten games at Anfield.
Fortunately, Alexis Sanchez’s red card just moments after gave the advantage back to Jurgen Klopp’s men, who controlled the match after to make sure they proceeded into the next round.
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But Carragher was not entirely happy with the way that Van Dijk defended Martinez’s strike, insisting he should have closed the Argentine down after he was given room to turn and shoot.
“Yes, I would have got tighter (to Martinez if he was VVD),” said Carragher on CBS Sports. “But, for me, as a defender, your natural reaction is to get tighter.
“I must say, the rest of Van Dijk’s game was unbelievable. Some of his passing. The clearances. How cool he was.
“But he could have got a little tighter and it was a wonder goal. Inter Milan played very well over the two games. They were probably the better team than Liverpool.
“You can see the difference between Serie A and the Premier League. Liverpool are nowhere near their best and still should have come away with two goals given the chances Mo Salah had.”
While Inter Milan emerged victorious on the night, the damage had been done after Liverpool won 2-0 at the San Siro last month.
But the Reds had some terrific chances to get on the scoresheet on Tuesday night with Mohamed Salah hitting the post twice while Luis Diaz was denied by a remarkable block from Arturo Vidal.
Liverpool have scored 109 goals in their previous 43 games so this would have felt like a strange night for the Merseyside outfit.
It also meant their seven-match winning streak in the Champions League came to an end and Klopp was not entirely happy.
"The art of football is to lose the right games," he said.
"I still hate it, but if there was any game we could have afforded to lose it was this one because the main target of this competition is to get through.
"It's not that I am over the moon - I'm really happy we went through, because when we saw the draw it was 'OK, that's a tough one'.
"But we went through over two legs and I think we deserved it.
"It's a big 'if' but if we had used our chances from set-pieces and other situations - it was a bit slapstick how we missed the chances - in the end we could still have won the game.
"But the only thing I'm interested in is that it is fair we are through."
