Virgil van Dijk believes Mohamed Salah can use Egypt’s World Cup qualification failure as a good motivation to win trophies for Liverpool this campaign.
Egypt have missed out on a place at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar later this year after losing their penalty shootout to Senegal on Tuesday night.
Salah missed his penalty while his Liverpool teammate, Sadio Mane, scored the winning penalty to secure a place for Senegal at the World Cup.
Speaking after Egypt’s defeat, Van Dijk reminded Salah that he has a lot to play for with Liverpool and warned Mane that Senegal could be up against his Netherlands team in the group stage.
‘Did he lose? Well obviously, I feel sorry for Mo and for Egypt, but football is sometimes like this,’ Van Dijk said.
‘I am sure he will turn the disappointment into success for the rest of the season. We still have everything to play for so there is a lot of things still to achieve for him.
‘As for Sadio, I wish him all the best and if he is in our group, he is going to need that good luck.’
Salah, meanwhile, was targeted by supporters who shone green laser pens in his face during the game and the shootout. The Liverpool attacker was also escorted off the pitch by two security guards after Egypt’s defeat.
Senegal, meanwhile have qualified for a consecutive World Cup for the first time in the history of the country.
In 2018, they failed to even make it out of the group stage with Colombia and Japan advancing from their group to reach the knockout stage.
