Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk insists he deliberately gifted Ryan Babel his goal in their win at Fulham!

The Cottagers forward capitalised on the Reds defender's miscommunication with Alisson and scored a goal - but it turns out the Oranje coach Ronald Koeman was relieved to see Van Dijk make a mistake.

He told De Telegraaf: "I thought 'let me also give Ryan some confidence for the international matches against Belarus and Germany'.

"Especially because, of course, we won that match.

"We talked about it briefly on the plane and Ryan had posted something on social media, but now all of us are focusing on Oranje again."

Van Dijk also revealed the Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman was quick to point out the blunder when he joined the Holland squad.

He added: "He immediately confronted me with that mistake."

Koeman said: "I told Virgil that he is ultimately also a human being.

"If you had to believe the media in England, we were dealing with an alien defender.

"But luckily for us, Virgil made a mistake for Liverpool and hopefully he plays [with a] clear [mind] for us against Belarus and Germany."