PSV steamrolled over AZ, partly thanks to Guus Til’s star role

PSV recorded its fifth consecutive away win over AZ on Sunday afternoon. The last home victory of the Alkmaar team over the Brabanders dates from March 21, 2021. PSV’s great start was reminiscent of the first sixteen minutes of the 2023 edition, the first championship year under Peter Bosz, when the Brabanders came out of the starting blocks overwhelmingly, led 3-0 after 16 minutes and would eventually win 4-0 in Alkmaar.

Once again there was an Eindhoven kickstart. The first goal was scored after just four minutes, a gift from AZ goalkeeper Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro, who frivolously lost the ball in the build-up, allowing Mauro Junior to easily score an early opening goal. Bosz had stuck to the proven recipe of recent weeks in Alkmaar, which meant that Ricardo Pepi and Ryan Flamingo again started on the bench and that Guus Til was retained as striker.

Vasle starts AZ against sharp PSV

The Amsterdammer had a wonderful afternoon at the club, for which he made his professional debut in 2016 and for which he had scored 28 goals in 96 professional matches. In the 11^e minute he was the end station of a nice attack with Joey Veerman and Ismael Saibari as previous stations. Although the flag was initially raised for alleged offside by Saibari, this turned out not to be the case after the VAR had viewed the images, so that referee Serdar Gözübüyük still pointed to the center spot (0-2).

It was a false start for the home team, who had to play with a team that had changed in several positions due to injuries. AZ coach Maarten Martens came up with a striking starting player: Kasper Boogaard. Not only because there are not very many professional football players from the island of Texel, but also because, following Jordy Clasie and Dave Kwakman, a third midfielder had to be taken to the sick bay. Peer Koopmeiners suffered from hamstring problems after the midweek away match against Crystal Palace. Boogaard had made his debut for AZ’s main squad as a substitute last Thursday in the Conference League match against Crystal Palace and played for ten minutes. The Texel player did not have a good start against PSV, as he received the yellow card after just 1 minute.

Hat trick Guus Til

The afternoon became even better for Til, who, before half an hour, soloed through the Alkmaar defense like an accomplished number nine and finished coolly (0-3). With a 3-0 lead within half an hour, PSV was in the clear, but with the nice margin in hand, the level of play dropped significantly. It resulted in a fairly quick 1-3 by Sven Mijnans, who missed out on a transfer to PSV last summer. PSV’s organization was not in good shape and then goalkeeper Matej Kovar also blundered, not his first mistake in recent weeks. AZ accelerated and PSV was lucky to reach halftime with a two-goal lead. Brazilian Weslley Patati mowed over the ball in front of an open goal after good preparatory work by Troy Parrott.

Even after the break, it was AZ that looked for the attack, but it was PSV that ended up 1-4. After a frivolous moment by basic debutant Boogaard, who lost the ball in midfield, the ball came to Joey Veerman, who scored with a carpenter’s eye. In the future, PSV defender Yarek Gasiorowski and AZ goalkeeper Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro had to be replaced due to an injury. The replacement for the AZ goalie was former PSV goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet, who was serenaded by the Eindhoven supporters. A little later they were also able to sing to Til again, as he scored his third of the afternoon from a cross from substitute Couhaib Driouech: 1-5. It was already the eighth goal of the season for the former AZ player, as many as Saibari in the Eredivisie, and the 44^e in total for the Eindhoven club.