After his European debut as a trainer, Ruud van Nistelrooij spoke of a ‘disappointing but justified’ result. After a strong first half, PSV drew 1-1 on a visit to Monaco, three days after the clash with Ajax. “We had to fight to the last drop of sweat.”
“Double”, Van Nistelrooij reacted when he approached him ESPN was asked about the mood in the locker room. ,,You are disappointed that you are playing 1-1, but on the other hand also realistic when you look at the second half. You just notice that the light goes out.”
That is not a reference to the city of lights, but to the intensive match against Ajax just three days ago. ,,You can tell from the players that we played a match last weekend. Monaco didn’t, they had their last game a week ago.”
Although the result was fine given the circumstances, Van Nistelrooij remained critical of his team’s play. ,,I thought we didn’t do enough with our possession. We had many opportunities to progress, but the build-up kept coming to a halt due to mistakes in the passing. And in the second half we had to survive. We had chances, but then you would score an undeserved extra goal. And in the final phase we had to fight to the last drop of sweat.”
‘Very moderately planned’
Goal scorer Joey Veerman regrets that that ‘undeserved’ second goal was not scored. “No, we are not satisfied. We concede a shitty goal, and we are unlucky in the chances. I think even though we were chasing the ball a lot, we could have won 2-0 here.” According to Veerman, the match against Ajax definitely plays a role. “We were home at 1:00 am. I find it very poorly planned. It is also quite warm here.”
However, according to Luuk de Jong, that fatigue should not play a role. “We have to be fit enough for this,” said the captain. ,,Of course it is tough when you have just played against Ajax and it is also quite stuffy here. If you’re not pure on the ball, it just gets really heavy. You have to walk up and down all the time.”
The moment that sloppiness was not there, the opportunities came, according to De Jong. ,,We had a hard time in the beginning and then you don’t get into your game. And certainly in the second half we hardly had any good attacks. And they were going to put pressure on us, which we struggled with. Then it was also 1-1.”
De Jong and Veerman agree on whether things will go well next week in the Phillips Stadium: with the audience behind them there will be a good game anyway: ,,Then Monaco will get shit in the pants,’ said Veerman.
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