Van Dijk breaks Everton hearts with 100th-minute screamer in Merseyside thriller
Liverpool snatch a dramatic derby victory when Virgil van Dijk's stunning strike in the 100th minute breaks Everton's stubborn resistance. A late goal settles a feisty, fiercely contested affair.
Beto 54'
1–2
M. Salah 29'V. van Dijk 90'
FT19 Apr 20262 min read
Match ReportWritten by MatchDay UK
This was not how Everton imagined their afternoon would end. For 89 minutes they battled, they scrapped, they clawed their way back into a match that had slipped away from them. Then van Dijk stepped up in the dying moments and erased all of it with a thunderbolt that will haunt the Blues for weeks.
Liverpool controlled this derby from the opening exchanges, suffocating Everton's creative ambitions and making their numerical advantage in midfield count. Salah broke the deadlock on 29 minutes after Gakpo played him through, a finish so composed it made it look straightforward. The Egyptian was everywhere in that first half, probing, prodding, making himself a nuisance. Everton never got going. They were ragged, disjointed, often reduced to chasing shadows.
But football is not played for 45 minutes, and Everton emerged after the interval with something to prove. equalised on 54 minutes, converting from close range after had done the hard work down the left. Suddenly the atmosphere shifted. The Blues had belief again. They pressed higher, they competed harder, they actually looked like a side capable of winning the thing.
