Virgil von Dijk is one of the best defenders in the world. But he never had the experience of getting a red card for the national team. The Netherlands captain got that bitter taste in the Nations League. Along with that, his team also scored points against Hungary. All in all, the Dutch captain is quite angry.
Von Dijk was shown a red card in the 1-1 draw against Hungary in the UEFA Nations League on Friday (October 11). After playing 77 matches in the jersey of the national team, he had the experience of leaving the field for the first time. However, the Liverpool star cannot accept the first of two yellow cards.
Hungary went ahead with a goal in the 32nd minute of the match. In the second half, Von Dijk had to leave the field after seeing two yellow cards in three minutes. The Netherlands was still lagging behind. But not to lose is fate. Even with 10 men, they returned to parity and scored 1 point.
Von Dijk received the first yellow card of the match for protesting the referee’s decision. Von Dijk approached the referee when teammate Daniel Malen was fouled. That is the danger. However, he has no objection to the latter. Second yellow card for foul.
Von Dijk told ESPN Netherlands after the match, ‘This red card is of no use. It shouldn’t have happened anyway. I am angry especially with the first yellow card. They said that only the captain can go and talk to the referee. I also go ahead. The situation was tense. But I didn’t say anything bad at all, not at all.’
Coach Ronald Koeman also gave a clear nod to the team captain’s red card, ‘That moment was disappointing. It does not enter my head at all. We all agreed that the captain can go and talk to the referee.’
The Dutch will face Germany in the next match on Monday. In such a big match, they will definitely have the discomfort of not getting the big trust of the captain and the defense.
(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = ”
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));