Just like last Sunday against Sparta, PSV played a striking role for striker Eran Zahavi. Again a foul on the striker led to a red card, this time even before half time. In addition, the Israeli scored and was responsible for disallowing a goal by Mauro Junior at the score of 1-1 by being annoyingly offside.
PSV and the KNVB Cup have been anything but a successful marriage for quite some time. It has been ten years since the people of Eindhoven last won the national cup. In the final, Heracles Almelo was defeated 3-0 by goals from Ola Toivonen, Dries Mertens and Jeremain Lens. A year later, the final was reached again, but with trainer Dick Advocaat on the bench, things went wrong against AZ. It was one of Mark van Bommel’s last professional matches.
Often wrong at an early stage
Since then, the final has not been reached and it often went wrong at an early stage. PSV did not even qualify for the semi-finals for eight years. Successively Roda JC (2x), FC Utrecht, Sparta Rotterdam, Feyenoord, RKC Waalwijk, NAC Breda and Ajax proved too strong for the Eindhoven players at an earlier stage.
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De Adelaarshorst was filled to the last seat for the semi-final, which had been so much anticipated in Deventer. Last Sunday’s stunt against Ajax had given confidence a major boost. Compared to that game, this time Bas Kuipers and Giannis-Foivos Botos played for Jay Idzes and Mats Deijl.
more convincing
PSV showed a much more convincing appearance than last Sunday at Het Kasteel, where trainer Roger Schmidt’s team survived a weak and sloppy start because Spartan Arno Verschueren received a red card.
Schmidt’s team dominated and created the necessary goal danger, but in the 36th minute PSV’s vulnerability came to light again. Ibrahim Sangaré lost the ball in a dangerous spot, allowing Go Ahead to get out. PSV anticipated the cross from Ragnar Oratmangoen badly. Philipp Max and goalkeeper Joël Drommel gave Inigo Cordoba every opportunity to head in. Again the eleventh season goal of the Spanish goal thief, who had already provided the opening goal against Ajax.
Go Ahead celebrates the 1-0
Ⓒ ANP Pro Shots
Red card
PSV seemed to have gotten themselves into a nasty mess, but the picture would look very different before half-time. First Zahavi made it 1-1 on a pass from Mauro Junior. It marked the first goal against this cup tournament from Go Ahead goalkeeper Andries Noppert.
Eran Zahavi made it 1-1.
Ⓒ ANP ProShots
Immediately after the equalizer, Go Ahead was left with ten men, after defender Joris Kramer corrected a slip by pulling Zahavi down. Referee Pol van Boekel initially received a yellow card, but was called to the side by VAR Dennis Higler to view the images. On that basis, Van Boekel decided that it had to be red, even though the road to Andries Noppert’s goal was still long.
Ferryman
And so the prospects for Go Ahead to reach the KNVB Cup final for the first time since 1965 were considerably clouded. It seemed to get even worse, when PSV appeared to be 1-2 immediately after the break thanks to a shot by Mauro Junior. But this time, VAR was the answer. After seeing the images, Van Boekel concluded that Zahavi had been annoyingly offside. From then on it was a completely one-sided duel, in which we had to wait for PSV to pull the trigger.
It was no coincidence that the 1-2 came off Joey Veerman’s foot, because the midfielder who came over from SC Heerenveen in January was the best PSV side in Deventer. With an individual action he managed to reach the back line and put the ball through the goal from a difficult angle under Noppert (1-2). In the future, PSV failed to increase the score – Veerman hit the post and Noni Madueke the bar – but the victory was no longer in danger, so that after ten years the Eindhoven team again had the chance to win the tenth KNVB Cup. to add.