Van Dijk says he has a soft spot for Barca due to the Dutch connection

has revealed that Barcelona has been a source of inspiration for him throughout the years. In Gary Neville's The Overlap, the defender said how the Dutch culture in

was important to him.

Neville questioned Van Dijk if Barcelona had inspired him in his career, to which Van Dijk replied: 

"Yeah definitely. I think most of it was because of Barcelona but also the Dutch connection at the time. There was so many Dutch players there, Frank Rijkaard was the coach there, you had [Frank & Ronald] De Boer, Kluivert was there as a striker, there was all these players at the time."

Van Dijk responded to Neville's question about the favorite away stadium to play in by saying: 

"That a difficult one as well, but I would say Camp Nou, Barcelona. Obviously for myself, watching a lot of Barcelona games when I was younger and then being able to play in it with Celtic the first time and getting beat 6-1 was tough. But to be able to play there was a big one, I really enjoyed it. It is incredible, it's insane."

Van Dijk has experienced much of his success at Liverpool, and he credits Barcelona in part for that. The Reds' amazing Champions League comeback against Barcelona propelled them to the final and gave them their first major championship under

Jurgen Klopp

.

Both teams return to European action this week, with

traveling to Amsterdam to face

Ajax

, knowing that a point would guarantee progression to the knockout stages.

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