LIVERPOOL, England — For most of 90 minutes, every eye at Anfield was trained on Virgil van Dijk. Even in the white heat of a Merseyside derby — and a knockout, winner-takes-all one, at that — the world’s most expensive defender managed to attract attention. His every header was cheered, his every pass judged, his movement analyzed and assessed. He will not have spent an evening under more intense scrutiny.
Except for those few seconds, after 84 minutes, when he wandered up for a corner, rose to meet Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s cross, and ended his first appearance for Liverpool, his first appearance as a record breaker, with the winning goal in a 2-1 victory against Everton.