Former England international Gary Lineker has criticised the Three Lions supporters for their treatment of Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk on Thursday.
Boos greeted the Dutch captain throughout his team’s 3-1 victory over Gareth Southgate’s side in their Nations League semi-final clash in Portugal.
Neither Lineker, nor The Times journalist Henry Winter, were very impressed with the behaviour of the travelling England fans.
“Embarrassing,” Lineker wrote on his personal Twitter account in reply to a tweet from Winter noting the absurdity of the treatment Van Dijk was receiving.
Embarrassing. https://t.co/6g4wjHllk3
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) June 6, 2019
OPINION
It was bizarre to hear the England supporters greeting Van Dijk’s every touch of the ball with a shower of boos on Thursday night. It’s strange, because you don’t think of him as a player who opposition fans love to hate. He’s not a Diego Costa or Luis Suarez, far from it. However, perhaps it was more a sign of respect for the talent that the Dutchman is, that the opposition supporters were trying to put him off because they realised how good he is. That’s one way of looking at it. The other way, of course, is simply to view it as embarrassing, as Lineker did. That’s understandable, too, because it was slightly embarrassing from the England fans. There was simply no need for them to treat Van Dijk the way they did. This isn’t club football where former players are routinely booed. So it was strange to hear and the player himself must have found it slightly disconcerting as well. Still, he put it behind him and delivered another fine performance on Thursday.
