Virgil van Dijk tackle on Napoli’s Dries Mertens was nearly worth two reds, says David Seaman

Virgil van Dijk tackle on Napoli’s Dries Mertens was nearly worth two reds, says David Seaman
Liverpool centre-back Virgil van Dijks sliding challenge on Napoli star Dries Mertens was nearly worth two red cards, according to David Seaman.The former Arsenal and England goalkeeper joined Wednesdays Alan Brazil Sports Breakfasttolook back at Tuesday nights Champions League action as both Liverpool and Tottenham made it through to the last 16.3

Mo Salah scored the crucial goal for Liverpool in a 1-0 win at Anfield

Alisson may have stolen the headlines with his point-blank save to keep the Reds in the competition, but Van Dijk didnt escape the public eye after his nasty-looking tackle on Belgian ace Mertens.There were puzzled and angry faces around Anfield when the Netherlands international was booked for what appeared to be a perfectly-timed sliding tackle on the Napoli man early in the first-half.However, replays showed that while he did get the ball cleanly, his studs followed through hard onto Mertens ankle.3

Virgil Van Dijk’s nasty-looking challenge on Dries Mertens

It earned the defender a yellow card and ruled him out of the Reds’ next Champions League game,thoughNapoli boss Carlo Ancelotti thought Van Dijk should have seen red.Van Dijks challenge comes just days after manager Jurgen Klopp called for referees to give his players more protection and blasted Burnley for their aggressive play after Joe Gomez suffered a fractured leg after an innocuous-looking tackle from Ben Mee.And Seaman was in agreement with talkSPORT host Alan Brazil that the Dutchman was a lucky boy to escape more serious punishment.Speaking on Wednesday morning, Sports Breakfast host Brazil said: I thought the challenge on Gomez from the Burnley player was a proper centre-halfs challenge. He didnt even look to see what happened, he was too busy watching the ball.For me that was a good challenge and it was just very unfortunate, but with Virgils, some refs would have gone straight red there.3

Van Dijk was given just a yellow card for the tackle

In the olden days there would be no question because he got the ball, but when he gets the ball and goes straight into the playerSeaman added:Yeah, when I saw that again I thought woah, thats nearly two reds.Its the excessive force they use now, thats what it is.That just used to be called a bit of afters, but you cant do it anymore.

"Some refs would have gone straight red there"2 "That's nearly 2 reds!"Should Virgil van Dijk have been sent off last night? pic.twitter.com/6UBdi2Rfeq— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) December 12, 2018

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