Virgil van Dijk is one of the most consistent and beautiful defenders in the Premier League and the Liverpool man has faced many highly skilled strikers over the years.

The 31-year-old has been in the Premier League for over 7 years and during that time Van Dijk has dealt with many top forwards from around the world.

The cormorant was invited by Harry Neville to The Overlap (Sky Bet) and there Van Dijk made some discoveries that surprised the pundits.

Olivier Giroud, the striker who gave Virgil van Dijk the biggest problems

Kun Aguero, Cristiano Ronaldo, Erling Haaland, Robert Lewandowski, Kylian Mbappe and Karim Benzema are just some of the strikers Van Dijk has faced in his football career, but none of them have given him as much trouble as Olivier Giroud, now a Milan player.

“I always felt I controlled Giroud, but somehow he always managed to score when he played against me.

Whether it was for Chelsea or France, he always scored. The year we won the Premier League in 2019-20 we beat Chelsea 5-3. We were 3-0 up and he scored a goal out of nowhere and I thought: <Învingem confortabil, dar el încă înscrie împotriva mea>.” said the Dutchman.

Giroud caught the attention of Europe in the 2011/12 season, when the French forward won the Ligue 1 championship with Montpellier and was the top scorer in the Hexagonal Championship.

Later, he moved to Arsenal, where he did his job perfectly, so that Giroud later made a sensation in the Chelsea shirt, with which he won the UEFA Champions League. At the age of 36, Olivier Giroud will play with Milan in the 1/8 finals of the Champions League.

Van Dijk told who he would like to work with in the team

Former Manchester United great Harry Neville asked Van Dijk which footballer he would like to play with in the team.

“Kevin De Bruyne, who I haven’t played with before but would love to. It’s unbelievable and if he had played at Liverpool we would have achieved better results than we did.

He is outstanding, holds the ball well at his feet, presses, scores a lot of goals and has all the attributes of a modern midfielder and a great football player in general.” – he added.

What’s more, Van Dijk has also not forgotten his Liverpool teammates, including Dutch defender Andy Robertson.

“He is a fantastic player, full of energy and passion. It was a pleasure to play with him in the same team. In my opinion, he is one of the leaders in the dressing room, also the captain of Scotland.

I played against him when I was at Celtic and he was at Dundee United and I told our scouts that we should try to get him to Celtic. Later he went to Hull, but everything worked out and we became teammates at Liverpool.

He’s one of the funniest guys in the team, he makes everyone laugh – he’s a player that every team needs.” – said Van Dijk.