Wirtz rejects Van Dijk’s claim, says Liverpool didn’t give up in Man City humbling
Quick Reads
- Manchester City demolished Liverpool 4-0 in the FA Cup quarter-final at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, April 5.
- Erling Haaland scored a hat-trick, with all four City goals arriving in an 18-minute spell bridging the first and second halves.
- Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk apologised to fans and admitted the team may have stopped fighting once the deficit grew.
- Midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai also questioned his side’s mentality, while manager Arne Slot said their reaction to going behind was not good enough.
- German forward Florian Wirtz pushed back on Van Dijk’s assessment, insisting the players kept creating chances even at 3-0 and 4-0 down.
Van Dijk Says Liverpool Gave Up in Humiliating City Defeat
Liverpool were eliminated from the FA Cup in crushing fashion, losing 4-0 to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday. Erling Haaland’s hat-trick headlined a rout that wiped out the Reds’ last realistic chance of domestic silverware and triggered a rare public split within the squad over the team’s attitude in the second half.
The match turned on a single moment of poor judgement. Virgil van Dijk fouled Nico O’Reilly inside the penalty area, and Haaland stepped up to convert from the spot. What had been an evenly contested opening half-hour collapsed entirely from that point. City scored four times in 18 devastating minutes spanning the break, and Liverpool never recovered. Mohamed Salah had a penalty saved, taken from the same spot from which Haaland had scored, and the visitors were outfought for the rest of the afternoon.
In the aftermath, Van Dijk delivered a pointed post-match assessment that immediately drew attention. The Dutch centre-back was candid about what he witnessed from his own dressing room. “I can only apologise to the fans for what we have shown, especially the second half,” the captain said. “You shouldn’t give up and that’s maybe, at a certain point, what happened. We let our fans down, we let ourselves down, and the manager.” Szoboszlai echoed that view, telling reporters the team lacked the mental strength to respond after going behind. Slot, who has faced growing scrutiny over Liverpool’s inconsistency, agreed that the players’ reaction to conceding was not what he expected.
However, Wirtz, signed from Bayer Leverkusen last summer in a deal reported by Goal.com at £116 million, offered a different reading of events. Speaking to reporters in Paris ahead of Liverpool’s Champions League quarter-final against PSG, the German said he had not seen Van Dijk’s comments but would not agree with them. “I think I would not agree directly because we still tried to create chances to turn the game around,” Wirtz said. “When it was 3-0 or 4-0, we had still a few chances, but it is not our standards that we lose 4-0 against City.” He added that the squad still believe in themselves and stressed that anything short of a complete performance over two legs against PSG would leave them with no chance of progressing.
The defeat also left Liverpool’s Champions League qualification for next season in doubt, with their Premier League position requiring attention before and between the two legs against PSG. Van Dijk acknowledged the scale of the challenge and called on every player to look inward. “I’ve been lucky enough to play for Liverpool for so many years. The main thing we always had was togetherness. Now, obviously, we are in a little bit of a transition, we have to find it.”
By the Numbers
- Final score: Manchester City 4-0 Liverpool (FA Cup quarter-final, April 5, 2026)
- Haaland goals: 3 (hat-trick, all from a goal sequence spanning the 30th minute through to just after half-time)
- The four City goals came within an 18-minute spell bridging both halves
- Liverpool’s 15th defeat of the season, confirmed by Sky Sports
- Salah penalty saved during the match
- Liverpool’s next fixture: Champions League quarter-final first leg vs Paris Saint-Germain, followed by a Premier League match against Fulham
