"It’s a special competition" - Virgil van Dijk on the FA Cup final against Chelsea

Virgil van Dijk has spoken about the importance of the FA Cup ahead of the final against Thomas Tuchel's Chelsea side.

Speaking to Liverpoolfc.com, as cited by Anfield Watch's Twitter account, Virgil spoke about how the Reds have struggled to go far in the FA Cup in recent years but that this year they want to win it and make it special for the fans.

“It’s a special competition. Obviously we didn’t achieve enough over the last couple of years to be close to the final, unfortunately, for different reasons. But now we are in the final and we want to make it a special one," Virgil said.

“This is the only trophy we didn’t win so far as a group of players since I’ve been at the club. Now we have a big chance – against a fantastic Chelsea.

"It has been maybe too long ago since the last time we won it. We have a good chance to get this as well. We know how tough it’s going to be, we’ve seen already in the Carabao Cup final. We’ll see. We’ll go there and hopefully [have] a fantastic day out again.

"They are a complete team. This last part of the season they haven’t been as consistent as they obviously wish to be – could be through injuries, different things, setbacks they had with [being] knocked out of the Champions League."

Anfield Watch Verdict

The last time Liverpool won the FA Cup was in 2006 against West Ham in what is generally referred to as the 'Steven Gerrard final’. If you don't know why it's called that, go on YouTube and search the game up. You'll witness one of Gerrard's best ever games for Liverpool.

Hopefully this game isn't as tight as the West Ham game all those years ago as our hearts wouldn't be able to take it.

As Virgil said though, Chelsea are coming into this game not in the best run of form. They recently dropped points to Everton and Manchester United in the league.

The defeat against Real Madrid in the Champions League seems to have affected them a lot, something that the Reds will try and take advantage of on Saturday.