PSV won the home match against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Conference League on Thursday evening with 1-0. The Eindhoven team were significantly stronger than the team from Israel, but were unable to convert their superiority into more goals.
It was PSV captain Cody Gakpo who scored the only goal of the match in the eleventh minute. After a combination with Mauro Júnior, Gakpo cut in and shot the ball into the short corner. PSV hardly ran into problems during the game, but failed to overrun the Israelis in this home game.
The Eindhoven team played less against Israel’s number 3 than last Saturday, when they defeated Vitesse in the Eredivisie (0-5). PSV therefore had to contend with many absentees. Olivier Boscagli, Ibrahim Sangaré and Carlos Vinicius were suspended and Armando Obispo, André Ramalho, Ryan Thomas and Maxi Romero injured.
Rapid Vienna-Vitesse: 2-1
Vitesse, meanwhile, did not do well in his Conference League match against Rapid Wien in Vienna. The Austrians won 2-1, partly due to a goal from attacker Ferdy Druijf, who was hired from AZ, who headed the ball in within a minute. In the fifteenth minute Marco Grüll took the 2-0 after he had passed two Vitessenaren. Lois Openda scored the 2-1 for the Arnhem team about fifteen minutes before the end. Rapid Wien already played with ten men through a red card for Filip Stojkovic.
The return match, in Arnhem, is scheduled for next Thursday. On the same day, PSV and Maccabi Tel Aviv met in Israel. The winners of these two double matches qualify for the eighth finals of the Conference League.