Virgil van Dijk howler gifts Villarreal shock opener against Liverpool

Virgil van Dijk was guilty of a disastrous error as Liverpool gifted Villarreal the lead inside four minutes in their Champions League clash, stunning Anfield into silence.

As the visitors lumped it forward from the halfway line, Liverpool captain Van Dijk completely misjudged his header back to Alisson, getting far too much on the ball when all he needed was a flick down.

He inadvertently looped the ball up and into the path of Villarreal striker Georges Mikautadze, who controlled and finished past Alisson with aplomb to put the Spanish side in front.

“Mikautadze can’t believe his luck,” Shearer said on TNT Sports commentary, who highlighted that this was Van Dijk’s third error of the match’s opening few minutes.

“Liverpool’s back four made an absolute mess of it after about 30 or 40 seconds, and Van Dijk has just done exactly the same there. Absolute nightmare from Van Dijk.

“A clear header. You can see what he's trying to do. It wasn’t a great clearance from Alisson, and then the ball gets played over the top, and really under no pressure at all, Van Dijk just tries to guide it back to Alisson. He gets it all wrong. Too much on it.”

Liverpool have won both their Champions League matches so far this season, beating Atletico Madrid 2-1 in their league-phase opener before hitting six against LASK last week.

But after a rocky start, they have work to do to prevent an upset on home turf to a side they beat to reach the 2022 Champions League final.