Van Dijk Defends Liverpool Teammates After Real Madrid Embarrassment

• Real Madrid came from two goals down to wallop Liverpool 5-2 at Anfield
• The match was a repeat of last year's final but the Reds looked out of sorts
• Virgil van Dijk has now taken responsibility for defending his teammates

Liverpool will have only themselves to blame, after surrendering a two-goal lead against Real Madrid to lose with an embarrassing scoreline of 5-2 against last season's champions.

The Spanish team has remained who they were from last season with not many changes to the team, but the Reds have been far from the team that played all possible games last season, reaching three cup finals.

It was a total shambolic display from Jurgen Klopp's men, who raced into an early lead in the first 15 minutes but at the end of 90 minutes, it never looked like an unconvincing victory for Carlo Ancelotti's men.

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Van Dijk defends Liverpool teammates

Uncharacteristically, Jurgen Klopp criticised his team's passiveness and defensive blunders after the first 15 minutes, which led to their capitulation, as reported by Goal.

Dutch defender, Virgil van Dijk, who was at the centre of everything that went wrong, has since come out in defence of his teammates, as reported by Sports Max.

''[Across] the whole of the Champions League, there are quality players all over teams. They can punish you and can punish the mistakes that you make. That's what they did in the second half, and it is pretty clear to see. [There were] mistakes that we shouldn't make, but it happens in football,'' he said.

Van Dijk emphasised that the players were not robots and sometimes mistakes happened.

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"That is the case. The only thing we can do is learn from it and focus on the next one to ensure it doesn't happen [again],'' he added.

Jamie Carragher slams van Dijk

A former Liverpool player who is certainly not a fan of van Dijk is Jamie Carragher. The two have had clashes of words in the past over the defender's abilities.

The British pundit said attention needed to be placed on the Reds revamping their midfield, saying the current crop of defensive players was not good enough.

Carragher also slammed van Dijk by saying he could take the Dutchman's place on the team, in response to criticism coming his way, as reported by Sports Brief.