It was the speed of the reaction that caught Virgil van Dijk out. As the ball came back of the crossbar, he was on his heels and Lionel Messi was not. So Messi scored the 599th goal of his Barcelona career and Van Dijk was left to reflect on another bad night at the Nou Camp.
The last time he was here, with Celtic in 2013, his team conceded six so you could say this was an improvement. But it was failure all the same. On a night when Liverpool were as good as – or better than – Barcelona in so many areas and for so long, they lost the game and Van Dijk – hard as it is to say – lost his personal battle with perhaps the greatest attacking player the world has ever seen.
On TV, Rio Ferdinand blamed Van Dijk for the first goal, scored in the opening half by Luis Suarez. That was a marginal call. Van Dijk's defensive partner Joel Matip was caught on his heels as Suarez stole in. At the very least, both were marginally culpable.
Virgil van Dijk lost his personal battle against Lionel Messi at the Nou Camp on Wednesday
For the second, though, Messi was too quick in thought and deed. Van Dijk dropped his head towards the ground as Messi rammed the ball in from close range. He knew what everybody else knew, namely that a 1-0 defeat would have been palatable while a loss by two was not.
There was to be another goal, of course, and we will all remember that one. Messi's free kick took the paint off the post as it went in. But it was the second one that shaped this game and this tie. Liverpool were the better team at that time and it changed everything.
With the score at 1-0 to Barcelona with 15 minutes to go, Liverpool led Barcelona in possession, shots and corners. That reflected the way the game had been for long periods. Barcelona had looked vulnerable for the first half an hour of the second half in particular. Had they been offered a single goal win at that stage they undoubtedly would have taken it.
But the second goal gave the Spanish champions some security and comfort and on the back of that came renewed courage and confidence and the fortitude to play expansively and take risks. And so by the end, it was three and it could have been four or five. Twice in added time Barcelona could have scored again, including with the very last kick of the game, so it is worth repeating that the second goal really was very important indeed, probably the most crucial of the
