Virgil van Dijk gets accolade from rival defender amid Erling Haaland claim

Real Madrid’s Antonio Rudiger has placed in good company, asserting that the defender is just who’s able to slow down .

It hasn’t taken long for Haaland to once again cement himself as one of the best strikers in the . In six appearances this season, the phenom has found the back of the net 10 times, raising his total to 101 goals over 107 matches since coming to England.

After facing off against Haaland on four separate occasions with , Rudiger conceded that stopping him is no easy task - but the 31-year-old believes that Van Dijk and Arsenal’s William Saliba are up to the challenge.

“I think I’m more of an old-school defender who loves this battle with strikers, especially with strikers like him [Haaland] because that guy is an absolute beast,” Rudiger said on The Inside Scoop.

“I don’t know what he eats or what he does, but he’s… wow, the power he has. When I see his goals, if you put a cross high at the second post you can’t beat him. You cannot beat him. If he wants, you’re under him every day.

“He’s a beast, it’s crazy. Yes, he didn’t score against us [Real Madrid] and stuff like this but he hit the crossbar, there was luck on our side,” he continued. “How do I prepare for this type of player, it’s hard to prepare because you just have to be ready for the physical battle.

“You just have to be ready for this and try not give him too much space in your back because he’s dangerous. If you run with him, it can be tough because when he puts his arm out.”

Given Van Dijk and Haaland’s similar measurements - the former stands at 1.93 m and weighs 92 kg while the latter is 1.94 m and 87 kg - Rudiger argued that the pair successfully match one another’s physicality.

“There’s rarely people who can physically match him,” he said. “The ones I’ve seen in the last couple of years is Virgil [Van Dijk], who is the same size as him, that’s a good match up, and I have to say Saliba also did very well.”

READ MORE:

READ MORE:

In the past, Van Dijk has expressed little desire to sing Haaland’s praises. On the heels of Liverpool’s 4-3 win over Red Bull Salzburg in 2019, he promptly excused himself from a post-match interview with Jan Age Fjortoft, who tried to ask him about the young Norwegian's goal off the bench.

Recalling the tense moment while appearing on the Blood Red podcast, Fjortoft said: "After the game, I interviewed Van Dijk... and I said 'I have to ask you about the Norwegian, Erling Haland' and he just said: 'Well, we won the game'. So I said 'Yes, but what do you think about him?

"Van Dijk said: 'I didn't see a lot of him' and he was a bit angry because there was some mistakes done and I said 'It's a good sign for a striker when a defender says he didn't see him!' - and then he just went away."