Virgil van Dijk ripped to shreds over comments immediately after World Cup heartbreak

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Virgil van Dijk sparked a backlash after the Netherlands were dumped out of the World Cup. 15:31, Tue, Jun 30, 2026 Updated: 15:44, Tue, Jun 30, 2026 Virgil van Dijk caused a stir with his post-match comments at the World Cup (Image: Getty)Virgil van Dijk sparked controversy by claiming the Netherlands' game plan worked against Morocco, despite being knocked out of the World Cup on penalties.

Ronald Koeman's men then squandered three penalties in the shootout, crashing out at the Round of 32 stage.With the Netherlands widely expected to progress further in the tournament, their premature departure has emerged as one of the major talking points of this summer's World Cup. I think we scored a good goal."Ultimately, in injury time, you get pushed back.

Unfortunately, we get knocked out."If you look at almost all the big teams at the World Cup, they also just drop back and they also wait for the right moment to apply pressure."We trained hard on this for two days. Of course, there are always things that can be improved, but anyway, that doesn't help us right now."Van Dijk and his team-mates were happy to surrender the majority of possession to Morocco, managing an xG of just 0.24 compared to their opponents, who registered an xG of 1.4 and nearly twice as many attempts on goal.It turned out to be a World Cup to forget for the Netherlands (Image: Getty)His remarks swiftly drew a fierce response on social media, with one user hitting back: "Yes Virgil, gameplan succeeded greatly!