Raheem Sterling was simply beaten by Virgil van Dijk's aura in a 1v1 battle in Manchester City's entertaining 2-2 draw with Liverpool on Sunday.
Sterling played through the middle in the gem of a game at the Etihad Stadium and thought he had scored the winner when he latched on to a glorious Kevin De Bruyne pass and slotted past Alisson Becker.
However a VAR check ruled that he had just strayed beyond Joel Matip and was therefore offside by the narrowest of margins.
Not long after the same combination created another dangerous situation for City, only this time Van Dijk was there up against Sterling.
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After racing down the left, Sterling looked to go past Van Dijk but he never really looked like he had any confidence of dribbling past the Dutch defender. There was only going to be one winner.
Sterling tried some stepovers, with Van Dijk allowing him to make the move. He then got a crucial foot in and easily and legally outmuscled Sterling so that Trent Alexander-Arnold could regain possession and pass the ball out.
Van Dijk was definitely second favourite but he defended tremendously - even if he did make it look a little effortless.
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The former Southampton has quite the habit of striking fear into opposition forwards. There was a similar instance in February whe Lautaro Martinez looked absolutely terrified to take on Van Dijk in the Champions League round of 16 first leg.
Edin Dzeko sent him through in behind but the Argentine didn't fancy it whatsoever.
Van Dijk's aura really is next level.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Manchester City, Liverpool, Premier League, Virgil Van Dijk, Kevin de Bruyne
