Van Dijk hails Liverpool’s ‘calm’ response in win over AC Milan

LONDON — Virgil van Dijk saluted Liverpool's "calm" response to conceding an early goal against AC Milan as they bounced back to win 3-1 in their Champions League opener.

Liverpool captain Van Dijk had admitted his side looked like they had no plan during a shock 1-0 home defeat against Nottingham Forest in the Premier League last weekend.

And the Netherlands centre-back was concerned again after Christian Pulisic gave Milan the lead after just three minutes in the San Siro.

To the defender's relief, Liverpool stuck to boss Arne Slot's game-plan and equalised through Ibrahima Konate before Van Dijk and Dominik Szoboszlai scored to wrap up the victory.

Asked if it was the perfect response to the Forest game, Van Dijk said: "No, not after three minutes. But after three minutes I think it was very good in so many ways.

"We stayed calm, played how we wanted to play rather than running around looking like we have absolutely no plan like we did, especially in the last 20 to 30 minutes in the second half of the last game, when you can play for another hour and you won't score."

Van Dijk, 33, insisted he was never worried about the criticism that accompanied the Forest defeat, which came after Liverpool had won the first three games of the Slot era without conceding a goal.

"For who it is a disaster? What can you do about the outside?" he said.

"You can't do anything about the outside. The only influence we have is what we do on the pitch and you saw it.

"It is about delivering today and tomorrow and if you don't then the pressure comes from the outside but we have to stay calm.

"I have a big role in that, the manager himself has a role in that but at the end of the day we, as players, have to show it on the pitch."

Slot's persistence with a virtually unchanged team for the first four matches of the season had come under scrutiny, but he maintained that stance with just two changes against Milan.

Cody Gakpo, one of Slot's alterations, was a revelation on his first start of the campaign, producing a dynamic performance reminiscent of his form for Netherlands at Euro 2024.

"I think last year he played very good games as well, I don't think you should forget that," Van Dijk said.

"I've seen what he can produce but when you play one game a week and players -- in this case Lucho [Luis Diaz] -- did very well then you have to be patient.

"We need everyone to be at their best and you saw he could make a difference with crosses and an assist as well. We need everyone and this was a good example of that."