Outstanding Guus Til and captain Luuk de Jong are pleased with PSV’s game in the match for the Johan Cruijff Scale with Ajax (3-5 win). They feel that they have shown that their minds were not yet on the upcoming match against AS Monaco.
PSV will start this season’s European campaign on Tuesday with an important away game against Monaco. A week later, the return in the third preliminary round of the Champions League follows in the Philips Stadium.
“Monaco’s name did not even come up in the run-up to the match against Ajax. So we managed not to be involved in that,” Til, who made a hat-trick against Ajax, noted with satisfaction in front of the camera of ESPN.
“I think it was a spectacular game for the neutral spectator. You won’t hear me complaining. In the first twenty minutes we had to gasp. None of us hit the ball often.”
Guus Til scored three times in the Johan Cruijff ArenA.
Guus Til scored three times in the Johan Cruijff ArenA. Photo: Getty Images
De Jong: ‘We have completed it well’
Captain De Jong also noticed that the PSV players were not yet fully aware of the confrontation with Monaco. “You could see that in our intentions. We have completed it well,” he thought.
“These kinds of matches, in the Johan Cruijff ArenA against Ajax, are always difficult. We had a hard time in the beginning and were played away reasonably well. We couldn’t put it down tactically.”
Out of nowhere Til made the 1-1 and later also the 1-2. “Fortunately, we have individual qualities and we went into halftime with a good feeling. We took that feeling into the second half,” said De Jong.
He didn’t really have an explanation for the turn of the game. “Sometimes it’s details. After the 1-1, for example, the mentality suddenly changed. Then you see that everyone thinks: we have to accelerate and then it’s just possible.”
AS Monaco and PSV meet on Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Stade Louis II. FC Emmen will be the first opponent of the Eredivisie season on Saturday.