5 hours ago
1 ARTICLE AD
Virgil van Dijk insists a decision still hasn’t been made on his Liverpool future as he enters the final few months of his contract.
The Reds’ skipper was understandably emotional as he took in the scenes that followed his side’s Champions League demise last night.
With the Premier League title all but sealed and a Carabao Cup final to look forward to against Newcastle on Sunday, Liverpool were well fancied to reach the latter stages of Europe’s elite club competition.
Paris Saint-Germain hadn’t read the script at Anfield last night, however, and delivered a superb performance that yielded a 1-0 win and a subsequent place in the quarter finals following a penalty shootout victory.
Van Dijk was later filmed in the Anfield tunnel deep in conversation with PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi and sporting director Luis Campos.
Get personalised updates on Liverpool every day
Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we’ll send you so we can get football news tailored to you.
The Ligue 1 giants are one of the clubs who will be carefully monitoring Van Dijk’s situation in the coming weeks and eyeing up a possible free transfer.
Van Dijk, however, remains adamant that nothing has been determined yet and the prospect of remaining at Liverpool cannot be ruled out.
‘No idea at the moment, still no idea,’ he said after the game. ‘You can keep trying (to ask me), I don’t know. Is a contract pending?
‘There’s nothing pending, I don’t even know myself, I keep saying the same thing.’
He added: ‘Look, I think there are still 10 games to go, that’s what I’m focusing on. If there’s anything new, you’ll know, of course, but I don’t know myself.
‘Everyone knows there are conversations behind the scenes, but that’s about it.
‘Right now, I don’t know what’s going on next year, so if anyone tells you they know, they’re lying to you.’
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot, meanwhile, admitted there was a sense of shock after his side’s surprise exit.
Slot said it was difficult to separate the two teams after 90 minutes and while he accepted the Ligue 1 champions edged extra time the 4-1 defeat on penalties, with Gianluigi Donnarumma saving from Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones, still felt harsh.
‘Of course it is shock,’ he said. ‘It is maybe not the moment to tell them now but two seasons ago we went out to Real (Madrid) after losing 5-2 at home so if you have to go out, go out the way we did against one of the best teams in Europe and making such a fight.
‘I hope every fan around the world was hoping this game wouldn’t stop because it was incredible.
‘Two teams had an incredible level and intensity in the first 25 minutes. I also remember the first 25 against Manchester City and Real Madrid but this was unbelievable what we showed in the first 25.’
‘Over 90 minutes I don’t think we deserved to lose, over 180 maybe it was deserved we went to extra time. In extra time I thought maybe PSG was better than us. Then it comes down to penalties and they scored four.’
MORE: Mikel Arteta backs Arsenal to sign former Man City star on free transfer
MORE: The reason Ousmane Dembele took incredible penalty with ‘weaker’ foot against Liverpool
MORE: ‘I thought I had him’ – Wayne Rooney reveals he tried to sign Man Utd star
