Virgil van Dijk believes Southampton are on the brink of something special.

The Saints defeated Liverpool 1-0 in the EFL Cup semi-final first leg tonight to give themselves a great chance of qualifying for the final at Wembley next month.

Nathan Redmond's 20th-minute goal separate the two sides and after the match, stand-in captain van Dijk told Sky Sports that the overall performance of Claude Puel's side has them daring to dream.

"We won today, we kept a clean sheet which is the most important thing," he said.

"We played good football at times, Liverpool is a great team, good on the ball, so it is a great team performance. I'm happy with the goal (scored by Redmond), the win and clean sheet."

Regarding the side's improved defence against the attacking power of the Reds, centre-back van Dijk said: "It's all about communication, they have plenty of movement up front, a lot of running.

"We need to talk with each other and I think we did it very well. We managed it well and it's a good win to go to Anfield."

And for Southampton's cup final hopes, van Dijk added further: "We need to believe.

"It is something special for the club, we showed today we want it so bad. It's gonna be tough but you never know."