Virgil van Dijk admits Liverpool rode their luck in Saturday's Merseyside derby, revealing even Ibrahima Konate believed he was fortunate to avoid a red card against Everton
Everton felt aggrieved in the second half when referee Craig Pawson opted not to show Konate a second yellow card for a drag back on Beto
Van Dijk accepted Liverpool were lucky not to be reduced to ten men for what would have been their fifth red card of the season.
Van Dijk
"A bit of luck? Definitely,"
"What can I say? He could have given it, he didn’t give it. A bit of luck for us. So what can I say? Nothing else. Did we deserve that luck? That's something others can say. I don't know.
"I think with tackles and stuff, that’s for the referee’s to judge.
"Especially the second I noticed that when there is a decision, we wanted to stay away from the referee and to make sure we don’t get yellow cards for shouting or saying ‘ref yellow for this’.
"That’s something we have influence on and that’s a bit like something we should stay away from.
"We did that very well, especially with the circumstances. Like I spoke about before, we were lucky not to concede a second yellow with Ibou, he knows it but we move on."
Van Dijk added:
"It was the game we expected.
"The red card changed it a little bit but we had our game plan, we had to be very patient, we had to make sure the defensive organisation was spot on because of the amount of possession we had and the ball up high, what they wanted to do was win it and just kick it in behind.
"We had to be aware of that. They have the players up front to fight for it as well. We did well, we did very well.
"Obviously we got the win. It’s difficult. In these games when you score the 1-0 it changes the whole dynamic of the game.
"In the first half when Trent crosses that ball in front of everyone, I think if we tap that in just before the break it is a totally different game. It’s just that if we score that’s a different game but we didn’t. Sometimes you just have to keep going.
"Obviously we are still at the beginning of the season but there are very positive signs, very pleased we kept a clean sheet, won quite comfortably, didn’t give many chances away.
"Set pieces where they could be dangerous, free kicks from their own half where they can be dangerous but we knew that. I think we dealt with it pretty well."
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