What should have been a celebration turned into a temporary disappointment. PSV missed an excellent opportunity against Heerenveen on Sunday to secure second place. Afterwards, captain Luuk de Jong and trainer Ruud van Nistelrooij had to lick their wounds. The cause of the draw was analyzed, but the crucial match against AZ next week was also looked at.
“Three moments, three goals”, Van Nistelrooij simply analyzed the defeat. But of course it wasn’t that simple in practice. PSV was very mediocre and showed SC Heerenveen that there is something to be gained.
“We often suffer from that”, De Jong said afterwards. “The spaces on the field are getting bigger and then opponents of smaller size, with all due respect, suddenly have the idea that there is something to be achieved. That is not possible.”
“The fact that we fell back a bit after the opening phase was not the problem.”
Van Nistelrooij stuck to the fact that it was three individual fouls. “The fact that we fell back a bit after the opening phase was not the problem. That makes sense and then Heerenveen did not become dangerous either. But due to two individual errors you go into the break with 2-1.”
It got even worse for PSV after a third Frisian goal. Still it came back to 3-3. Did this match symbolize the current season of the Eindhoven team? “It’s kind of the line of this season. Boys are also refocusing. Only you could finish it here, we will only know that next week”, the trainer said with a look at next Sunday.
“We have to realize what we are playing for.”
The striker of the Eindhoven team also thought about that. “We have to realize what we are playing for. It should be on everyone’s mind. We’ll let it come down to the last game, but I’m confident. Second place is super important.”
PSV must score at least one point against AZ if Ajax is not able to catch up with the Eindhoven team. Don’t panic yet, but it will certainly be exciting. “AZ-uit is a top game. We have to live up to that. We must stick together and stand back. We know what to do.”
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