Virgil van Dijk achieves never-before-seen Champions League feat for Liverpool

Virgil van Dijk was a serious attacking threat during Liverpool's victory over Qarabag in the Champions League on Wednesday night, assisting goals for three of his teammates

Virgil van Dijk during Liverpool's win over Qarabag(Image: 2026 Ben Roberts - Danehouse)

Virgil van Dijk became the first central defender in Champions League history to register three assists in a single game during Liverpool's win over Qarabag on Wednesday.

Van Dijk assisted Alexis Mac Allister, Hugo Ekitike and Federico Chiesa as the Reds romped to a 6-0 win at Anfield. The Dutchman's first assist came as his header from a corner was converted by Mac Allister, before Ekitike latched onto a clearance by the Liverpool captain and went on to score.

Van Dijk's final assist of the game came during the final few minutes, as he slid Chiesa in to score Liverpool's sixth goal of the game.

The victory secured Liverpool a third-place finish in the Champions League league phase, and ensured the Reds will play the second leg of their last-16 tie at home.

Speaking in a post-game press conference, Arne Slot talked up the importance of Liverpool securing the win it needed to avoid a two-legged play-off to make it into the competition's knockout phase.

"It's what you want if you start the Champions League season – you want to finish top eight," Slot said. "Tha t helps, of course, because you skip a round and sometimes you can have a really hard team to play against in a round like that.

"So, we are happy that we are going straight away to the last 16, especially because it's only two years ago that we were playing Europa League and we went out in the quarter-finals against Atalanta. So, two seasons in a row now being in the last 16, and last season we were very hungry for more and we will definitely be hungry for more this season as well."

It wasn't a perfect night for Liverpool, as Jeremie Frimpong was forced off with an injury, but Arne Slot played down the idea of the Reds dipping into the transfer market in the final few days of the window to deal with the squad's fitness issues.

“As a club, we always make decisions - what we think are smart decisions - not only in the short term but the long term, which is why we sign younger players," Slot said.

“It always depends on whether there are players available that we think can help us. If there are, can we afford them?

“And is this also helpful for the longer-term future, because our players come back from injury as well. I just said that we don't have a squad where we have four right-backs and 12 midfielders and three or four no.9s.

“That's not how it works over here. So we have to do smart things for the near future, but also for the longer future. Let's first see how Jeremie is.”