PSV won 1-0 at Sparta on Saturday evening. Substitutes Fabio Silva and Anwar El Ghazi were important for the team from Eindhoven in the hard-won match at Het Kasteel. Thanks to the important three-pointer, PSV takes a big step towards second place in the final standings.
Anyone who has run out of sleeping pills is advised to watch the first half of Sparta – PSV. PSV then statistically had ten goal attempts, but it was certainly not fun and good. Of those ten attempts on goal, only one was on target. That was a shot straight at the keeper.
The number two and number five in the rankings did not make it a fun match at all. Certainly more was to be expected from PSV. It is not for nothing that the duel in Rotterdam was labeled as a key match in advance. But it was especially impotent against a solid Sparta.
bills
If you had to hand out compliments to PSV, it was limited to the central duo. André Ramalho and Jarrad Branthwaite had top scorer Tobias Lauritsen under control and were very strong in the duels. But the fact that you designate this duo as the best man on the field says enough about PSV’s performance.
PSV coach Ruud van Nistelrooij was also not satisfied with the double substitution at half time. El Ghazi and Philipp Mwene came in for the entire right side, Jordan Teze and Johan Bakayoko. After an hour, the trainer even exchanged captain and the man in form Luuk de Jong for Silva. A daring substitution but fully justified given the performance of the striker in the match.
It turned out to be golden switches because it was Silva who passed his opponent over the right on willpower. His cross got stuck in front of the goal and was shot in by El Ghazi. 0-1 for PSV, a goal that suited this ugly match.
Ugly win
The big difference at PSV is that ugly matches are won in the second half of the season. As a result, the club is now second with (provisionally) six points ahead of Ajax, which will play later on Saturday.
With two home games ahead, second place is now really up for grabs. Only AZ-out still seems like a potential banana peel. But the question is whether the battle for second place has not already been decided.
Read also: PSV wants to take a big step towards second place in ‘key match’ at Sparta