Virgil van Dijk told Emmanuel Emegha to “give up” football after the Chelsea striker barged him to the floor during Liverpool's Carabao Cup victory, a lip-reader has revealed.
The fourth-round tie at Anfield ended 1-1 after 90 minutes, with Morgan Rogers' penalty cancelled out by Cody Gakpo's spot-kick. The match went to a shootout, where Valentin Barco and Kostas Tsimikas both missed before sudden death. Ryan Gravenberch and Emegha saw efforts saved, and Wesley Fofana blasted over to send Liverpool through to a quarter-final against Bournemouth.
Clash with Emegha
Emegha came on as a 68th-minute substitute for Danny Welbeck. Within 120 seconds, he barged into Van Dijk off the ball, knocking the Netherlands international to the ground. Referee Darren England did not punish Emegha, but Van Dijk spoke to the official moments later.
Former Arsenal striker Alan Smith, commentating for Sky Sports, said: “He just carried on [running], very strange from the substitute, Van Dijk had something to say about that afterwards.”
Lip-reader's analysis
Expert lip-reader Nicola Hickling analysed Van Dijk's conversation with the referee for Metro. She revealed the Liverpool captain's stern message: “No, no, no. I am done with him and anything to do with football. He better give up.”
Van Dijk was substituted shortly after, replaced by Jeremy Jacquet.
Emegha's Chelsea debut
Emegha, who played alongside Van Dijk for the Dutch national team twice last year, joined Chelsea in a €25 million (£21m) deal from fellow BlueCo-owned side Strasbourg in the summer. He scored 31 goals in 78 games for Strasbourg but missed the start of the season with a hamstring injury suffered in July. His second-half appearance at Anfield marked his official Chelsea debut.
With Joao Pedro sidelined by a knee injury, Emegha is in contention to make his Premier League debut against Manchester United at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
