Virgil van Dijk mocked with ‘Van Disney’ nickname after Fulham 2-2 Liverpool

The Reds came from behind twice at Craven Cottage on Saturday afternoon and van Dijk had a miserable moment against Alexsandar Mitrovic.

The Serbian international hit the post and was a thorn in Liverpool’s defense throughout the 90 minutes.

Van Dijk is regarded as one of the best one-on-one defenders in world football and wanted absolutely nothing to do with Mitrovic.

Unfortunately for him, Mitrovic came back for more in the 72nd minute and Van Dijk brought down the Serbian international in the penalty area and referee Andy Madley pointed to the spot.

The Liverpool players were furious with the decision, but Van Dijk knew he had made a mistake.

It is the first time Van Dijk has dribbled an opponent and been awarded a penalty in a Premier League game since joining Liverpool in 2018.

Mitrovic stepped up and slotted home Alisson’s spot-kick to give Fulham the lead for a second time.

Supporters online reacted to van Dijk’s performance and his new nickname ‘Van Disney’ became popular worldwide.

You can see some of the tweets below.

Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah equalized after each Mitrovic strike to ensure the points were shared.

Liverpool looked out of rhythm compared to last weekend’s Community Shield win over Manchester City.

Several players were missing through injury and Thiago withdrew with a suspected hamstring injury.

Klopp told BT Sport in his post-match interview: “The best thing about the game is the result, that we get a point from a very bad game from my side. The attitude wasn’t right at the start, we wanted to fight back. But we don’t find it so easy anymore.

“The result is good, we don’t deserve more than that, but the performance is much improved.”