Rarely in the past 1.5 years has PSV performed as poorly as it did on Tuesday evening in Guingamp. Against Stade Brest, the Eindhoven team failed to take a big step to the next round. Afterwards there was talk about an ‘unrecognizable PSV’ and some harsh words were spoken. “This is unworthy of PSV.”
With an earworm face, Peter Bosz analyzed what he had seen from his players moments earlier. “I’m grumpy now. From the first seconds everything was very disappointing.”
That was no lie because PSV played a dramatic match in France. Bosz even went one step further. “This is the worst match we have played under my leadership.”
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It was the short summary of a terrible evening for PSV. It puts the next round at stake due to the defeat against Brest. No one could find an explanation. There was also a lot of disbelief among the players.
“You wonder how this could have happened,” captain Luuk de Jong looked back on his team’s performance. “We were not ourselves. Every ball jumped off our feet. Brest made good use of that. But that makes this defeat especially unnecessary.”
“With all due respect to Brest, we have to beat this team.”
Bosz did not want to look at the opponent at all. “With all due respect to Brest. But we have to win against this team. But if an opponent puts more energy into the match you get such a result. As a team we did not do well. I am also responsible for this.”
Olivier Boscagli also thought it was a poor performance and called it ‘unworthy of PSV’. The defender, like his trainer, did not want to look at the opponent. “We rightly lost. We were unrecognizable. We never reached our level and there are no excuses for that.”
“At no time did we reach our level and there are no excuses for that.”
Fortunately, PSV still has a chance to continue in the Champions League, but will have to win at Red Star Belgrade or at home against Liverpool. The last match in particular seems to be a difficult task as the English have not yet lost a match in the Champions League. And so there seems to be a lot of pressure on the match in Serbia.
“We’ll have to get to work,” Boscagli looked ahead. “It doesn’t get any easier,” Luuk de Jong continued. “We saw again today that winning games in the Champions League is not easy. But fortunately we still get two chances.”