Virgil Van Dijk stood in a subterranean curving tunnel leading from the street to the pitch at the Nou Camp, although at that moment it may have felt like one of the nine circles of Hell.
People came and went from a subdued Liverpool dressing room and as he was speaking, Van Dijk had to break off to avoid being clattered by a kit skip.
He smiled wanly at the suggestion the last thing Liverpool needed now was for him to get injured.
Virgil Van Dijk has backed Liverpool to stage a dramatic comeback against Barcelona
Van Dijk knew that after a defeat exaggerated by the brilliance of Lionel Messi, Liverpool could not afford any more mishaps if they are to retain belief that they might yet overcome the 3-0 deficit they will take into Tuesday’s second leg against Barcelona at Anfield.
Van Dijk insisted there was still hope and not just because Roma pulled off a sensational 3-0 second leg victory over Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-finals last season to overturn a 4-1 mauling in the first leg. Trailing 3-0 can do wonderful things to Liverpool teams and there is belief among Jurgen Klopp’s team that all is not yet lost.
‘We can take things to Anfield and give it our best shot,’ Van Dijk said. ‘We tired them with our energy here and we will do that again. We have our fans as well. We have home advantage so we have to use that.
'We have to be aware of them on the break as well because we were a bit lucky to not concede another one in the end tonight. We should have done better with defending the goals and we should have scored but it’s 3-0 and we have to deal with it.
Van Dijk believes that the atmopshere at Anfield could be crucial to Liverpool's chances
Liverpool are aiming to produce another classic European performance at Anfield
‘But of course we can do it. It’s always going to be strange for them to come to us with a lead like that, thinking how they are going to approach us.
'We were in a situation last year when we won comfortably against Porto away and it’s a strange mindset when you start the return game. We need to believe and we believe anyway so we will see how it goes.’
Liverpool had played well for 70 minutes against the newly-crowned Spanish champions and Messi had even begun to look frustrated. He was still brilliant, of course, but he looked more like the fretful Messi we sometimes see playing for Argentina than the rampant genius who so often lights up the Nou Camp.
There were times
