Liverpool defender relieved to reach major finals after two failures but says Dutch still have room for improvementIt is heartening that the scaling of individual and domestic heights have not doused Virgil van Dijk’s appetite for a national cause. Qualification by the Netherlands for next summer’s European Championship marked another milestone for the
Liverpool centre-back, who barring injury will appear in a major tournament for the first time. Dutch failure to reach Euro 2016 and the
World Cup two years later provided an itch Van Dijk was anxious to scratch. These failures provided deep embarrassment.
“I’m delighted that we are back at the Euros, back where we belong I think,” said Van Dijk, who made his international debut in 2015. “We’ll not look too far ahead but we are looking forward to this. It means a lot to the people. I’ve heard we’re going to probably play all our group games in Amsterdam. It will be massive.