Virgil van Dijk achieves long-awaited career milestone in Euro 2024 win

Liverpool currently has 10 players at Euro 2024, with the likes of Andy Robertson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez, Cody Gakpo, Ryan Gravenberch and others all making their respective squads for the finals in Germany.

One player who is making personal history is Liverpool skipper Virgil van Dijk who, despite being nearly 33-years-old, marked his first time at a European Championship at Euro 2024 . The Netherlands got off to a winning start, emerging victorious against Poland 2-1 thanks to goals from Cody Gakpo and Wout Weghorst.

For Van Dijk, the win marked his first-ever appearance at the tournament. The Dutch skipper produced a very good positive. Van Dijk made six clearances, completed six long ball passes, won three ground duels and also five aerial duels.

It makes for an intriguing stat that Van Dijk has had to wait so long until making his debut at a European Championship. Van Dijk made his international debut for The Netherlands in late 2015, but the country missed out on Euro 2016 after failing to qualify from group A at the expense of Iceland, Turkey and Czech Republic.

The Netherlands also lost out on qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, after finishing third in its qualifying group behind Sweden and France. Van Dijk then missed Euro 2020, which was postponed by a year due to the global pandemic, due to suffering a ACL injury the previous October. Van Dijk could’ve made the tournament, but didn’t want to take a risk in rushing back too soon, and thus decided to stay at home.

Van Dijk finally made his international competition debut at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, when he captained the side to the quarter final. The Netherlands was eventually beaten by winners Argentina on penalties. So nearly nine years after making his debut for his country, Van Dijk finally got to play in a European Championship.

The Netherlands find themselves in a difficult group, with France, Poland and Austria involved in group D.