Tottenham Hotspur forward Lucas Moura has questioned claims Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk is the best defender in the world.
And the Brazilian refuses to believe no player was able to dribble past the Reds centre-back last season.
Lucas was on the losing side as Liverpool clinched a sixth European Cup by beating Tottenham 2-0 in the Champions League final in Madrid last month.
Van Dijk was named the official man of the match to cap a superb first full campaign with the Reds in which he was named PFA Player of the Year.
Such has been the Dutchman's domination of opponents that statistics suggest he hasn't been dribbled past in his last 64 appearances for Liverpool.
But when told of the claim, Lucas said: "Dude, now this question there I don’t know if it’s true. They say he hasn’t been dribbled past since… whatever. If the guy is past him, it’s already a dribble.
"Have I already gone past him? I don’t know, but the guys must have gone past him now.
"I know I scored a goal against Liverpool (at Anfield in Tottenham's 2-1 defeat in March), we lost, but I scored against Liverpool and he was left behind. But he’s great. He is.”
While appreciative of Van Dijk's campaign, Lucas isn't sure the Liverpool man can be regarded the game's outstanding defender at this moment.
“In the world? There are a lot of people there," said Lucas, speaking to Brazilian journalist Bolivia on YouTube channel Desimpedidos (via Sport Witness). "But for the season, I think he’s among the three. Among the three!
"Hey, the guy’s good. He’s two metres tall, strong, and the Liverpool team is a very good fit, with a lot of chemistry. So he had an excellent season."
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Lucas scored a famous hat-trick against Ajax to book Tottenham's place in the final but was left out of the starting line-up with Mauricio Pochettino preferring Harry Kane.
The Tottenham man was in tears after the game and said: "Of course I got upset. I wish I had started playing. But I got so much more upset that we lost.
"We believed very much that we were able to be champions. And man, it was difficult. I cried a lot after the game. Because it was so close, so close."
