{"id":873958,"date":"2026-04-05T15:39:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T15:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/873958\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T15:39:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T15:39:18","slug":"virgil-van-dijk-apologises-following-liverpools-fa-cup-thrashing-at-manchester-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/873958\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgil van Dijk apologises following Liverpool\u2019s FA Cup thrashing at Manchester City"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Liverpool failed to qualify for the FA Cup semi-finals on Saturday following a heavy defeat to Manchester City, meaning Arne Slot\u2019s side are now only competing for a Champions League spot this season. Captain Virgil van Dijk has taken responsibility and offered his apologies.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The current fifth-placed side in the Premier League were already trailing 2-0 after the first 45 minutes, before Pep Guardiola\u2019s side put the game beyond doubt shortly after half-time by scoring twice more: 4-0.<\/p>\n<p>Van Dijk told The Times he was disappointed in his team\u2019s performance and took responsibility. \u201cWe have let down not only ourselves and the manager, but also the fans,\u201d the Netherlands international began.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe way we played in the second half must be painful for everyone. I want to apologise for that,\u201d continued the defender, who went on to say that the mediocre season is taking a particularly heavy toll on him mentally. \u201cMentally, it\u2019s very tough at the moment. Overall, it\u2019s just been a very tough season,\u201d said Van Dijk.<\/p>\n<p>Liverpool will need to regroup in the Champions League next week. Yet a difficult task awaits the reigning champions. On Wednesday, the Reds are away to Paris Saint-Germain.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I watched a bit of it yesterday and it\u2019s going to be a tough job. But we have a responsibility, not just to ourselves, but above all to the fans,&#8221; concludes Van Dijk.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, the captain of the Dutch national team remains confident, including in his manager. \u201cOf course he is responsible as manager, but we are the ones on the pitch who have to deliver,\u201d he said. \u201cThe quality is there. I\u2019ve been lucky enough to play for Liverpool for so many years and the most important thing has always been the team spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Of course, we\u2019re currently in a transitional phase, so we need to rebuild that sense of unity,&#8221; he concludes.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool failed to qualify for the FA Cup semi-finals on Saturday following a heavy defeat to Manchester City,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,97,4884,179,2465,886,245908,16,15,247962],"class_list":["post-873958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manchester","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-fa-cup","tag-great-britain","tag-liverpool","tag-manchester","tag-manchester-city","tag-manchester-city-vs-liverpool","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-v-van-dijk"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116352854749438618","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}