Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk has named former Arsenal and Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud as the toughest opponent he has ever faced.
Giroud made a reputation for himself as a player who scored in important games. The Frenchman has also scored some absolutely spectacular goals during his career.
While speaking to Gary Neville on the Overlap show, Van Dijk said:
“Olivier Giroud. I feel like, I’ve got him, but in some way, he always manages to score, whether it’s with Arsenal, Chelsea, France. I said to him as well when we won the league, we were 3-0 up and he scored a scrappy goal. It was against the crossbar and then fell down and scrappy goal. I said to him, ‘You’ve scored again?'”
The Liverpool defender added:
“I would say that he is the guy that scores against me and just an annoying person to play against. But there’s a lot, Messi, Aguero, Haaland is a difficult one because he has everything but I’ll go with Giroud. He’s a bogeyman.”
Giroud had two stints in the Premier League with Arsenal and Chelsea. He arrived at the Emirates from French side Montpellier. In 253 games for the Gunners, Giroud scored 105 goals and provided 41 assists.
He played 119 games for the Blues, scoring 39 goals and providing 14 assists. Giroud is currently plying his trade with defending Serie A champions AC Milan.
Since joining the club last year, Giroud has scored 22 goals and provided eight assists in 55 games for the Rossoneri.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp lauds Darwin Nunez for his performance against Napoli
Darwin Nunez was introduced from the bench by Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp during his side’s 2-0 UEFA Champions League home win against Napoli on Tuesday, 1 October.
The Uruguayan scored his side’s second in injury time. Klopp was happy with the impact the attacker made during his cameo as the German tactician told the media after the game against Napoli (via liverpool.com):
“Yeah, absolutely good. In these games, for us it was obviously not a game for massive rotation or whatever because of the situation. But a little bit we had to and that’s why we didn’t start all three [strikers] because we have to see how you get through a game.
“And I thought Curtis [Jones] did really well on an unfamiliar position for him. Did really well, was involved in the game. And then when you can then bring on a fresh player with the quality of Darwin it’s very helpful, so really happy about that.”
