Bayern Munich defender Matthijs de Ligt and Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk could be top defensive pairing at the World Cup

Bayern Munich defender Matthijs de Ligt is fill focused on his club season, but in the not-so-distant future, the Dutchman will have shift focus to a World Cup run by The Netherlands.

One of the interesting parts of De Ligt’s international career is that he gets to team with another excellent center-back in Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk. When asked if the duo could be the top pairing at the World Cup, De Ligt did not want to be boastful.

“We could be, I don’t know. That’s not for us to decide or for us to say,” De Ligt told ESPN FC (as captured by the Liverpool Echo). “I think Virgil is one of the best center-backs in the world. He is amazing. He has already shown for a couple of years in Liverpool that he is one of the best, if not the best. If we could be the best? I don’t know, the most important thing is that we play good as a team. You can play amazing as a partnership, but if the whole team is playing bad, it’s going to be difficult.”

The Netherlands will likely enter the competition as one of the favorites and part of those expectations are based on the combination of De Ligt and Van Dijk.