Virgil van Dijk made Dutch footballing historical past tonight as his nation secured their place on the 2026 World Cup finals.
Netherlands rounded off their qualifying marketing campaign with an emphatic 4-0 win over Lithuania in Amsterdam, with the job all however mathematically executed previous to kick-off given their objective distinction benefit over second-placed Poland in Group G.
The defender’s Liverpool teammate Cody Gakpo was among the many objectives for Ronald Koeman’s facet, scoring the second with a 58th-minute penalty, whereas Ryan Gravenberch was an unused substitute for the Oranje.
Van Dijk units new Netherlands captaincy document
Van Dijk gained his 88th senior cap for his nation tonight, and as appropriately famous by journalist Liam Bekker on X, the 34-year-old is now the outright document holder for essentially the most appearances as Netherlands captain, carrying the armband for the 72nd time.
It strikes him one away from the earlier benchmark set by Frank de Boer (Reuters), and all however two of his matches as Oranje skipper have come as a starter (Ons Oranje), an exceptional continuity for the Reds’ quantity 4.
Van Dijk is an all-time Netherlands nice
A decade on from making his Netherlands debut, Van Dijk has lengthy since established himself as considered one of his nation’s all-time greats, and fairly presumably the best Dutch defender of all time.
He may simply have turn into a centurion tonight if it weren’t for his prolonged layoff from the ACL damage that Jordan Pickford inflicted upon him in 2020 – the Liverpool captain missed 12 video games for his nation whereas sidelined for 9 months.
He ought to hopefully attain the 100-cap mark over the following 12 months if fortune is kinder to him, and he led by instance together with his efficiency in opposition to Lithuania.
As per Sofascore, the 34-year-old gained all 5 of his duels, accomplished 91% of his passes, recorded one shot heading in the right direction, made a team-high eight clearances, performed one key move and created one ‘massive probability’.
Van Dijk has been criticised by some pundits for his performances at Liverpool this season, however he stays an important chief for membership and nation, and the stratospheric requirements he’s set all through his profession see him judged to a better diploma than virtually each different participant in world soccer.
The Reds centre-back will deservedly play in his second World Cup subsequent summer season, as long as misfortune doesn’t preclude him from being concerned for Netherlands.
You possibly can watch Slot’s full post-Man Metropolis press convention through Empire of the Kop on YouTube:
