"He’s so strong and intelligent" £190m PSG superstar heaps praise on vital Liverpool player

PSG superstar, Neymar, has provided high praise to Liverpool centre-back, Virgil van Dijk, in a recent interview with DAZN Canada.

He said, “Playing against van Dijk is tough because as a centre-back, he’s so strong and intelligent. He knows when it’s the right time to close you down and when to go in for a tackle. That makes it harder. He’s intelligent.”

“It’s harder to play against intelligent centre-backs. They don’t make mistakes.”

The fact that Neymar is such a high-profile attacker who is having an outstanding season so far, makes this compliment far greater. The Brazilian forward has scored 11 goals and assisted seven times in just ten games in all competitions.

It's always entertaining watching players of such a high calibre face off against each other, and we might get to see these two play on the same pitch this season when the 2022 FIFA World Cup starts at the end of the year.

Van Dijk was famous for keeping star players like Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland quiet during matchups, and he certainly made an impression on Neymar. When Liverpool faced PSG in the group stage during the 18/19 winning campaign, van Dijk was praised for this particular tackle.

Neymar wasn’t happy with this tackle, but you can’t deny van Dijk’s brilliance in this situation. It looked like Neymar was taken out but upon replay, it’s clear that van Dijk won the ball fair and square.

The Brazilian did end up scoring in that match during the Parisian's 2-1 victory. Liverpool ended up finishing second in the group due to the loss, which led to getting drawn against Bayern Munich in the round of 16.

PSG lost to Manchester United while Liverpool went on to beat Bayern Munich, FC Porto, FC Barcelona, and Tottenham Hotspurs to take home their 6th Champions League trophy. Despite losing to PSG in that fixture, it worked out for the best for Liverpool.