Emmanuel Emegha’s ‘bizarre’ decision to pick a fight with Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk when they took on Chelsea this week, didn’t just confuse the English press.

Over in the Netherlands, they’re equally baffled by the incident. Or, Valentijn Driessen is at least.

For those that don’t know what we’re talking about, the incident happened as Chelsea took on Liverpool in the Carabao Cup this week.

Emegha came off the bench game, meaning he got to come up against compatriot – and Netherlands captain – Van Dijk. But rather than a sporting battle, the pair ended up in an actual battle.

Odd moment

The strange moment happened shortly after the Chelsea striker came on to the pitch in the second half. As Van Dijk was playing a pass to a teammate, Emegha simply carried on his run and pushed the Liverpool star to the floor, despite the ball long moving on.

The Liverpool captain was visibly angered by the incident and exchanged words with the officials about it. Emegha did not receive a card for it, though.

Van Dijk was then asked about the incident after the game. And he was at a loss to explain it.

“Ask him. I don’t know. Maybe he’s trying to get into the national team as well and trying this way. I don’t know. You have to ask him,” he said.

Dutch confusion

Confusion or bemusement was the reaction in the Netherlands as well. Driessen, for example, couldn’t understand what Emegha was attempting to do.

“Another thing that caught me by surprise was Emegha. He gave Virgil van Dijk a shove—completely out of the blue,” Driessen remarked on *De Telegraaf*’s Kick-off show.

“Van Dijk had already played the ball away; he was looking at where to move next when, suddenly, Emegha appeared.

“Van Dijk even commented: ‘Well, maybe he wants to join the Dutch national team, but this certainly isn’t the way to go about it.’ It was a very strange move.

“It was relatively harmless—just a shove—but it was still bizarre. I haven’t heard from the lad himself yet; perhaps he has an explanation, or maybe he just had a momentary lapse in judgment.”