Virgil van Dijk says he woke the next morning thinking not of the five goals Liverpool scored but the two late ones they conceded. Like everyone at the club’s Melwood training ground, the world’s most expensive defender was denying himself the euphoria a 5-2 Champions League semi-final first-leg win would normally bring.

“Those two goals were still in my mind. It’s still a good lead but it could have been a little bit better,” he says of the moment he opened his eyes on Wednesday morning. “I know we still need to be happy with a 5-2 lead to take to Rome. As a defender to concede the goals we conceded - it’s just like a bit frustrating. And after the game as well you think - it could have been 5-0, then we’ll see what’s going to happen over there, and they can try everything, but we know we’re going to score at least one goal, then they can’t do anything.”

With Liverpool on the threshold of a Champions League final in Kiev, the focus shifts from their devil’s trident of attackers to the defenders charged with stopping Roma winning 3-0. And this is where Liverpool could yield their first big dividend on the £75 million paid to Southampton in January for Van Dijk, who instantly brings to mind Bill Shankly’s invitation to the press when he signed Ron Yeats: “Take a walk around my centre-half, gentlemen, he’s a colossus.”