Virgil van Dijk using Kylian Mbappe motivation ahead of Erling Haaland test for Liverpool

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Liverpool Echo IconSportFootballVirgil van DijkThe Liverpool skipper got the better of Kylian Mbappe on Tuesday, and will come face-to-face with Erling Haaland on SundayVirgil van Dijk believes his Liverpool side are ready to put in a good performance against Manchester City despite the recent form of Erling Haaland.The Reds captain will be full of confidence after leading Liverpool to back-to-back wins for the first time since September 23rd, following a poor run of results prior to the victory against Aston Villa on Saturday.But the Reds might have their toughest and most important clash of the season so far as they face Pep Guardiola’s City side at the Etihad, with a win perhaps acting as the springboard that would close the gap on leaders Arsenal. The hosts will also be aiming for all three points to prevent the gap between them and the London club opening up even further.READ MORE: Liverpool players caught up in major protest as statement released calling for sackREAD MORE: Florian Wirtz has a big problem at Liverpool - He's done if he doesn't now do one thingThe Citizens' main output of attack will be the prolific Haaland, with the Norwegian powerhouse currently in an unbelievable vein of form, scoring 13 goals in 10 Premier League appearances, seven more than any other player in the division.Despite the 25-year-old’s incredible scoring run, Arne Slot’s skipper has full belief that his defensive unit have the ability to keep out the number nine, emphasising that they did that exact thing against Kylian Mbappe in the win over Real Madrid on Tuesday.“Similar to tonight (against Real Madrid) a little bit,” the centre-half said when questioned on Tuesday about the difficulty that Haaland could pose.Van Dijk added: “We faced in this (Real Madrid) team as well a very in-form striker.

(Mbappe) was in form, as well, so you have to be spot on.”The structure of Liverpool’s defence has been called into question at times during the first few months of the season, though with Conor Bradley performing well and an experienced Andy Robertson returning to the left-back role, the champions’ backline looks much more of a strong unit, as evident against Aston Villa and Real Madrid.When asked about the ability of his defensive colleagues after being Real, the Dutchman said: “I think today we showed that we were good as a team defensively and created good opportunities there.”With the back four looking much more solid, the 34-year-old has reason to be confident, as when playing against Guardiola’s star-man Van Dijk has usually done well in keeping his impact on the game to a minimum.The Norwegian has played the Reds eight times during his career and has only won one of those encounters, scoring three goals in the process, which for Haaland’s high standards, could be considered a fairly low number. When playing in Manchester the striker, who has never scored at Anfield, has two goals against Liverpool, with one coming during his time at Salzburg.With these numbers in mind, Liverpool’s captain has reason to feel like he has the ability to keep City’s main man quiet as two giants of English football go head-to-head.