LIVERPOOL star Virgil van Dijk came up with a surprise player when naming his toughest-ever opponent.
The striker gave the Dutchman a number of tough matches when he came up against him in the Premier League.
The centre-back has played against some of the best forwards in Premier League history including Harry Kane and Sergio Aguero.
But Van Dijk feels no player has caused him greater headache than former Arsenal star Olivier Giroud, whom he described as his “bogeyman”.
Asked about his toughest opponent, van Dijk told France Football: “Olivier Giroud.
“Every time you think you’ve got a hold of him, that you’ve got him well marked, but he always manages to score in one way or another: with his head, his foot, his knee. He has often scored against me.
“I always felt like I got him, but somehow, he always managed to score. Whether it was for Arsenal, Chelsea or France, he always scored.
“I said to him when we won the league, we won 5-3 [against Chelsea] we were 3-0 up or something and he scored a scrappy goal, I think it was against the crossbar and fell down, scrappy goal, I said to him: ‘You scored again?!’
“So I would say he is the guy that scores against me, and just that annoying person.
“There’s so many fantastic strikers I’ve played against, [Lionel] Messi, Aguero, Haaland is a difficult one because he has everything, but I’m going for Giroud as he’s my bogeyman – annoying!'”
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Giroud, 37, scored 90 Premier League goals for Arsenal and Chelsea.
He is also France’s record scorer with 56 goals and he is still going strong for AC Milan, finding the net nine times in 16 Serie A appearances this season.
