Virgil van Dijk has revealed that his toughest striker to date is the former Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud.
The Dutch international chose Giroud when asked the question by Gary Neville on the latest episode of the Overlap on YouTube.
Van Dijk, 31, has been amongst the best defenders in the world since joining Liverpool in 2018, so it stands to reason that whoever he picks deserves a huge amount of respect.
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This revelation from van Dijk came during the latest episode of the Overlap during a segment where he answered the best questions from the fans.
Neville asked: "Who's the hardest striker you've ever faced in your career?"
"Who's given you a tough time where you've thought 'I didn't expect that today'."
Van Dijk replied with Giroud and claimed that the Frenchman, annoyingly, always found a way to score.
"Funnily enough, Giroud. I feel like I got him, but in some way he always managed to score.
"Whether it's with Arsenal, Chelsea or France, and I said to him, when we won the league and we were 3-0 up or something and he scored a crappy goal, you scored again!
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"So I would say he is the guy who scores against me and is just an annoying person, but there are so many amazing strikers I've played against - Messi, Aguero and Haaland is a difficult one because he has everything."
He then chose the World Cup winner over all of those forwards and agreed with Neville that Giroud may be his bogeyman after all.
Looking at the stats, Giroud managed three goals in five games against van Dijk during his time at Chelsea as well as scoring two and assisting once in four games at international level while playing directly against him - it's safe to say these aren't empty claims.
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The question was also thrown over to Neville, who revealed that Louis Saha during his time at Fulham was an opponent who got the better of him on a regular occasion.
With the World Cup starting in under three weeks, it will see Van Dijk grace the tournament for the first time in his career in what a landmark moment for the Dutchman
He will look to captain his side to glory in Qatar after they failed to qualify for the 2018 edition in Russia.
The likes of Memphis Depay, Frenkie de Jong, Cody Gakpo and Matthijs de Ligt, alongside their captain, make for a strong Dutch contingent and could be a surprise pick to go far this time around.
George Priestman