In contrast to how the season as a whole has gone, the Reds serenely booked their place in the round of 16, brushing aside their Azerbaijani opponents at Anfield and killing the game as a contest in the early stages of the second half.
It wasn’t all positive for Arne Slot, however, as the defensive injury crisis intensified further, with Jeremy Frimpong limping off after just four minutes with a suspected hamstring problem, leaving the largely untried Calvin Ramsay as our only natural senior right-back.
Van Dijk claims hat-trick of assists
It was a much better evening for his compatriot Van Dijk, who helped himself to a hat-trick of assists against Qarabag, with Opta confirming (via X) that the 34-year-old is the first centre-back to achieve the feat in a single UEFA Champions League match.
Liverpool’s official X account also highlighted that ‘incredible’ piece of history from the club’s captain, who nodded the ball down for Alexis Mac Allister to score the opener, sent a long-range pass to Hugo Ekitike for the Frenchman’s goal and was on the heels of Federico Chiesa to round off the scoring in the 90th minute.
Van Dijk was excellent all-round against Qarabag
Van Dijk came into the match last night after a difficult match against Bournemouth, in which he was responsible for the Cherries’ first goal. Chris Sutton then stated that the Reds defender’s standard has ‘dropped significantly’ from last season.
However, the Dutchman showed that class is here to stay with his historic performance on Wednesday, even taking into account the scarcity of the opposition, with the Liverpool echoIan Doyle notes how he ‘took on a lot of the defensive responsibility’ in addition to his hat-trick of assists.
That assessment is backed up by the 34-year-old’s stats from last night (via Bank score), which illustrates the impact he had on both ends of the pitch.
| Assists | 3 |
| Passes completed | 64/73 (88% success) |
| Duels won | 4/5 (80%) |
| Shots | 4 |
| Big opportunities missed | 2 |
| Clearances | 4 |
| Key cards | 3 |
| Great opportunities created | 3 |
| Accurate long balls | 6 |
Van Dijk has actually had the second most goal contributions of any Liverpool player in the competitive stages of the Champions League, with his run of two goals and three assists only surpassed by Dominik Szoboszlai with four of each (Who scored).
He won’t face opposition as accommodating as Qarabag every week, but the captain’s dominant performance on Wednesday was the perfect response to the criticism leveled at him in recent days.
Let’s hope he can maintain those standards in our upcoming Premier League games against Newcastle and Manchester City, which will undoubtedly be considerably more difficult.
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