PSV starts Champions League with a painful defeat in the game that actually has to be won

In a group full with the toughest European opponents, one of the smaller names turned out to be too much for PSV on Tuesday evening. Union Saint-Gilloise, champion of Belgium last season, was not so much better or more skilled in the first group duel in the Champions League, but above all more efficient and less sloppy. On a stormy late summer evening it became 1-3 in Eindhoven.

It was a competition that PSV trainer Peter Bosz did not want to grant too much weight in advance, he said the day before. Of course he wanted to win such a first game, “that is important for the feeling.” But if that did not work, then everything was still possible, Bosz stated. Especially in a tournament in which clubs, since last year’s expansion, take action even seven times.

Bosz referred to last season’s European campaign, when PSV started in the Champions League with a shocking 3-1 defeat against Juventus. Later they had put that neatly, according to Bosz, with two equal games, and especially the victories over Girona FC, Sjachtar Donetsk and Red Ster Belgrade. A false start therefore needs to be ‘not all -saying’, Bosz believed.

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The difference is only: last year PSV was able to look forward to meetings with lesser opponents after Juventus, a large part of which would end in the lower regions of the group. Now PSV seems to be getting heavier with the competition. According to data agency Opta, PSV had one of the most difficult draws of all 36 participants in the Champions League.

So maybe something is possible in the second game, against Bayer Leverkusen, a team that started the season roughly. And otherwise perhaps still visiting the Greek Olympiakos FC. But for the rest, top teams are still waiting: Bayern Munich, Liverpool FC, SSC Napoli, Atlético Madrid and Newcastle United FC. Union was the opponent in that list of which PSV should not lose.

Awkwardly

In many aspects, the competition was like that of three days earlier, when PSV won in the competition at NEC. An “atypical” team, according to Bosz, who surprises the Netherlands with attractive and almost stormy football. With an unusual formation in the Netherlands: three central defenders on the back, and two wingbacks that cover the sidelines from front to rear.

He had therefore adjusted his team: PSV himself had also started playing with three defenders. A fairly successful experiment: the competition was won 5-3, but PSV also looked vulnerable in the back at times. Uneasy too: did the central defenders have to get off if an opponent came through on the flank? And who then took over their husband in the center?

With Union, PSV will also find a team with three defenders and mobile players on the flanks on Tuesday. But in Eindhoven, Bosz now decides not to mirror his team. He holds on to four men in the back, with one variation: fixed choice Yarek Gasiorowski moves from the center to the flank, in the absence of a rear left. Amando Obispo, usually a substitute, fills his place in the back.

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Yet PSV therefore looks no less vulnerable than against NEC. Because the pressure from Union is tirelessly high, and the players of the home team as soon as they get the ball almost immediately have to duel with an opponent. But just as well by PSV itself, which at times simply plays too slow to make it really difficult for an opponent.

It is telling how goalkeeper Matej Kovar, partly attracted this summer because he can play well, regularly hesitantly hesitating the ball. Looking for a free man to play, to finally row the ball forward, as soon as the strikers of Union are approaching him up to a few meters. Almost every time with loss of ball as a result.

If the pace is then increased, PSV is often too sloppy. Such as when Ismael Saibari rushes towards the goal after twenty minutes and teammate Jerdy Schouten, completely free next to him, overlooks and then gets stuck. And a few minutes earlier, when Joey Veerman takes far too much time with an assumption and is surprised by an opponent who comes out of his back.

Unnecessary

The first goal also falls from such an unnecessary error. A throw -in from Union, which is headed away by Gasiorowski. The ball ends up at Ricardo Pepi, the striker of PSV who nurses and does not see – and is told – that an opponent comes to rush in his back. Instead of the ball, he touches the man, an awkward, but obvious penalty kick. Attacker Promise David shoots.

The second goal is also introduced by Pepi, although that is mainly because he is played at an awkward moment: between three defenders, with a pass that can hardly be checked. If Anouar Ait El Hadj then dribbles towards the goal, it can be virtually undisturbed. Only at the last minute does a PSV player step in, defender Obispo, who is painfully simple.

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It is a setback that PSV no longer knows how to recover. Although the home team gets opportunities, the self -confidence seems to be gone, resulting in a lot of wrong passes and failed dribbles. Union shows itself less careless ten minutes before time: defender Kevin Mac Allister scores from a poorly processed corner. That Ruben van Bommel makes the 1-3 just before time is hardly any comfort.

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