Virgil van Dijk has named former Arsenal and Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud as his toughest ever opponent ahead of the World Cup, with the Liverpool centre-back claiming that 'he always managed to score'.
Giroud scored 90 goals in 255 Premier League appearances for Arsenal and Chelsea between 2012 and 2021 and despite never having been first choice at either club developed a reputation for being a tricky target man. He has also enjoyed a distinguished international career, earning over 100 caps for France and playing every minute of their successful 2018 World Cup campaign.
Van Dijk cites Giroud's international performances as another reason for his difficulties against the now 35-year-old with a number of duels taking place between the pair through the years.
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Giroud now plies his trade in Serie A, winning the Scudetto with AC Milan season and posting a vintage performance in the Champions League in midweek, with two goals and two assists for Milan as they qualified for the last 16 with a comfortable win against Red Bull Salzburg.
Van Dijk was speaking on The Overlap, in partnership with Sky Bet, when he revealed his struggles with Giroud, saying: “Olivier Giroud was the striker I’ve struggled against the most. I always felt like I had him, but somehow, he always managed to score against us. Whether it was for Arsenal, Chelsea or France, he always scored.
"The year we won the Premier League in the 2019/20 season, we beat Chelsea 5-2. We were winning 3-0 and he scored a scrappy goal, and I thought to myself ‘we’re winning comfortably, but he’s still scoring against me’.”
He added: “I’ve said it to him as well, I think when we won the league when we won 5-3. We were 3-0 up or something and then he scored a scrappy goal. I can’t remember exactly, I think it was against the crossbar, fell down.
“Scrappy goal. I said to him, ‘You’ve scored again?!’ I would say that he is the guy that scores against me. Just an annoying person!
“There are so many fantastic strikers I’ve played against (like) Messi, Aguero. Haaland is a difficult one because he has everything (but) I’m going for Giroud. He’s a bogeyman, he’s annoying.”
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