Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk has refused to label the Netherlands' World Cup quarter-final tie against Argentina as a personal contest against Lionel Messi.
The Oranje will go head-to-head with Lionel Scaloni's side on Friday at the Lusail Stadium for a place in the last four of the Qatar finals. Louis van Gaal's side will be hoping to avenge their semi-final loss to Argentina in Rio de Janeiro eight years ago.
While Messi has pocketed the headlines in the Middle East with a string of fine individual performances, most notably against Mexico and Australia, Van Dijk is refusing solely focus on the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner.
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“It is an honour to play against him,” said Van Dijk on Tuesday. “It is not me against him, or the Netherlands against him, but the Netherlands against Argentina.
“No one can do it on his own, we will have to come up with a good plan.”
Despite not being named in Holland's 23-man squad for the 2014 finals in Brazil, the Liverpool defender has had his own encounters with Messi, who many consider the best to ever play the game.
The two powerhouses faced one another at the end of the 2018/19 season when the Reds met Barcelona in the Champions League semi-finals. After a 3-0 defeat at the Nou Camp in the first leg, a game in which Messi scored twice, Van Dijk labelled the then-Barcelona superstar as the most challenging opponent he has faced in his career thus far.
However, a Divock Origi-inspired comeback at Anfield six days later would ensure Van Dijk reigned victorious from his maiden bout with Messi as a 4-0 victory over the then-La Liga champions secured Liverpool's place in the 2019 final against Tottenham. Jurgen Klopp's side would defeat their Premier League counterparts 2-0 at the Wanda Metropolitano the following month to claim the first European Cup in 14 years.
"The difficult thing about him is when we are attacking, he is chilling somewhere in a corner or something," added Van Dijk, the Dutch captain, of Messi.
"You have to be so very sharp in terms of defensive organisation. They always looked for him to try to make it difficult for us on the counter."
After missing last summer's European Championships as he entered the final phase of his rehabilitation for an ACL injury he had sustained the previous October, Van Dijk knows that a maiden international tournament success will be just two games away if the Netherlands are able to claim victory against the Paris Saint-Germain magician and his contingent in Doha.
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