de Rood-Witten

Feel like this might be the beginning of the end of the road for Jeroen Zoet

Eredivisie (A) : Sparta Rotterdam 0 - PSV 1


With the team still licking their wounds from the hiding they got in Barcelona a trip to Rotterdam to face Sparta, rather than Feyenoord, would be a welcome break. The second team would take the field, and with Antonio Valencia out for about a week with a twisted ankle suffered in training the youngster Ivanildo Wennemars would get the start at RB. Spirits would also be high, especially with Mark van Bommel, as Vitesse would draw with Utrecht while across town Ajax would lose 1-0 to Feyenoord. The rest of the league was slowly starting to fall away, now PSV would just need to take care of business.

This was possibly one of the least enjoyable wins of the season so far, Sparta did not seem particularly interested and PSV just couldn’t find their game. It took 60’ for Maximiliano Romero to score, slipping through the defense on a well placed through ball by Bruno Henrique. It seemed like this would be the turning point, but instead the game continued to drag on.

The only drama of the day was at 74’ when Romero slipped by his defender on a through ball and snuck the ball past Roy Kortsmit only to discover the flag was up. He was clearly onsides, but the assistant ref did not agree and van Bommel came out the discuss the matter with his usual level of intensity. The animated conversation was more lively than the game, and the look on van Bommel’s face when Jurgen Dirkx and Mark Bosz had to escort him from the pitch turned into a meme before the final whistle blew.

Eredivisie (A) : Willem II 1 - PSV 3


As if attempting to spawn yet another meme (#leagueleaderproblems) van Bommel had more issues to deal with and found himself in the middle of the best possible time to have those issues. Yet another road game would normally be exceedingly frustrating, but Willem II was currently in a (7) game losing streak and looked destined for the Eerste Divisie. This is why losing Antônio Carlos to the flu for about a week wasn’t the end of the world, Jordan Teze would be a suitable replacement based on the competition.


Willem II did not disappoint, they failed to take a single shot in the first half and barely managed 34% possession. Donis Avdijaj scored to put them down 3-1 in the second half, but by that point the game was over.

Things got even better after the game as PSV’s lead over Vitesse now sat at (4) points and Ajax’s schadenfreude laden season got worse with a 2-1 loss at NAC Breda. In somewhat non-PSV related news Ruud van Nistelrooy was fired by Valencia after they stole him from the MLS, and then in a bizarre turn of PSV related news Valencia’s President Anil Murthy turned to van Bommel for their manager opening. While joining up with Eva Carneiro was tempting, reports are that van Bommel rejected the suggestion outright without listening to any financial terms. The silver lining out of this was Toon Gerbrands accepting van Bommel’s suggestion that they should expand their coaching staff and bring back van Nistelrooy who agreed to return to PSV. With van Nistelrooy coaching the senior squad, there is hope that Maximiliano Romero and some of the Jong PSV strikers will take advantage of his experience.



Eredivisie (H) : PSV 4 - FC Utrecht 0


What an up and down day for PSV, a game in which they seemed to get their swagger back at just the right time. With the final Champions League group game looming it would be concerning if PSV mustered another game like they did against Sparta, but those fears quickly dissipated… mostly.

Pelayo Morilla made it 1-0 after just 8’, and Steven Bergwijn made it 3-0 after two great strikes after cutting in from the right and Romero made it 4-0 just before halftime. Walking into the half with a 4-0 lead definitely made it seem like their dominant ways were back.

Things did not look good for FC Utrecht, being down 4-0 at the half opened up the possibility of more goals but Bruno Henrique stepped up to open the door for the visitors. At 60’ he followed up an earlier booking with his second after managing to kick Joris van Overeem in the ankle on an ill-advised challenge from behind. Despite attempting to prove his innocence, he was sent off and van Bommel brought on Cody Gakpo for Romero to finish the game in a 4-2-3. As usual, the defensive formation maintained the lead and finished off FC Utrecht. They got more good news in the locker room as Ajax wrapped up a 2-0 win over Vitesse to open up a (7) point lead in 1st.

“This run has been good for us after [Barcelona], we are getting back on our feet” said van Bommel after seeing the Ajax-Vitesse result. “We won big, we won missing some players, and we won ugly. We need all of those if we are going to repeat in the league.”

PSV face Spartak Moscow next week and head to Heracles Almelo before finding out their Champions League fate.

Champions League (H) : PSV 3 - Spartak Moscow 0


With second place in the group secured this game was a dead rubber acting more as a warm up for the first knockout stage. Even the steady rain couldn’t couldn’t damage the relief of playing this one at home, another trip to Moscow was one of the last things van Bommel needed to deal with.

Spartak Moscow nearly rolled over immediately, the lack of significance seemed to hit them the hardest. It was obvious that the game plan was to sit back and avoid getting embarrassed, and it worked until 31’ when Luuk de Jong headed in a cross from Antônio Carlos and crushed what little spirit Spartak brough with them. At 45’ Antônio Carlos scored his first Champions League goal after Alexandr Selikhov blocked his first attempt, with Spartak’s back line compressed into the middle he snuck inside and took a through ball from de Jong and hammered it right into Selikhov. Unfortunately for Selikhov the rebound went right back to Antônio Carlos for the worst kind of one-two goal. By the time Robert Arboleda headed in a corner at 84’, the game was clearly over.

While the game would be essentially pointless, Antônio Carlos achieved something that was not. His goal would make him the youngest ever to score in the Champions League at 16 years and 204 days old, no doubt the first of many of what appears to be a long and successful career. It made the obnoxious news of Barcelona losing 2-1 to Club Brugge more palatable if not slightly less disheartening.


Jong PSV would also continue their romp through the Keuken Kampioen Divisie by maintaining their dominating win streak. Now 21-0-0 with a +66 goal differential and a whopping (24) point lead for 1st, it looks like nothing can stop them.

Eredivisie (A) : Heracles Almelo 0 - PSV 2


The injury and absence bug continued to pummel PSV this week, some minor and one major problem would give van Bommel a pounding headache with a KNCB Cup tie looming. Antonio Valencia would take his turn with the flu, heading home for about a week and Bruno Enrique would be unavailable with a suspension. Things got really bad the day before the game as César Montes would be ruled out for 3-4 weeks with a hamstring strain. Montes and Robert Arbeloda have been so good together in their first year partnering in the middle, van Bommel would be left hoping for a swift return after the long winter break.

All of these problems would come at just the right time, the Schedule Gods looked kindly upon van Bommel yet again. Steven Bergwijn scored just 2’ into the game, after working the ball around the box following a corner Bergwijn was quick on his feet to send his own rebound back into the goal. Coming into the box from the right he sent a shot hard and low at the right post, Janis Blaswich would be there for an awkward if not dangerous save that would see the ball strike the post and head right back to Bergwijn. It wouldn’t be that hard for Bergwijn to score with Blaswich still on the ground basically hugging the post.

1-0 would be enough to hold back Heralces Almelo in the first half, it’s hard to score when you don’t take a single shot. Despite the thin lead, the hosts never looked like scoring until they finally put a shot on target in the second half. If there was any hope of a draw it vanished at 84’ when Cody Gakpo, starting for the suspended Bruno Enrique, scored to close the game out 2-0.

The win also helped push the league lead to (9) points as Vitesse drew 0-0 with ADO Den Haag, at this rate PSV will pull away from the pack and leave themselves ample room to stumble if injuries or form become an issue.


The media has been working at a fever pitch to suss out who PSV “wants” to play in the first knockout round. Attempts to pry the information from van Bommel only resulted in a terse “no comment” and an abrupt end to the conversation, despite this the media ended up on Olympique Lyon who won Group E over Manchester City. Despite all the machinations of the media, the draw had other idea and handed them Real Madrid.

The selection was no doubt met with short bursts of profanity by fans, but there is hope. Real Madrid won Group H with a 2-4-0 record over Bayer Leverkusen. Those (4) draws really stand out, their group was harder (Young Boys and Roma) but a club of their caliber should have done better. A return to Spain, specifically Madrid, holds some dark memories for PSV. The loss to Atletico Madrid is still fresh in everyone’s mind, and their earlier visit to Barcelona doesn’t sit well either. This could be van Bommel’s chance to exorcise the demons of La Liga in the Champions League, or at least limit their embarrassment.



In less depressing news PSV completed upgrades to their Youth Facilities and immediately announced further plans to make additional upgrades. With their new facilities ranking as superb, they have set their sites on maintaining a state of the art system to continue improving their youth program.

KNVB Cup (A) : AZ Alkmaar 2 - PSV 3


After the run PSV has been on few gave AZ Alkmaar much of a chance to win this one, even on the road it seemed like Mark van Bommel had figured out how to continue winning. With César Montes out Bruno Viana would move into the first team, but that wasn’t much of an opening for AZ. John van den Brom, the AZ manager, was not willing to roll over and follow along with the media. In a move to counter PSV he put his team out in a 4-1-2-3 formation to throw a wrench in van Bommel’s march toward another double.

Just 5’ into the game things started to go wrong in a mostly expected kind of way. An errant pass by Nick Viergerver gave AZ a counter attack that started in PSV’s half, and a through ball to Fred Friday released him from Robert Arboleda. Jeroen Zoet managed to get a hand on the shot, but it still made it just inside the left post to give the hosts a shock 1-0 lead. It took 22 minutes for PSV to respond, but it was more than worth it. Similar to the Spartak Moscow game, the back line got caught playing very narrow and Antônio Carlos came farther in for a low cross from Luuk de Jong. Owen Wijndal broke out wide to cover Antônio Carlos who took a shot from an almost impossible angle, a little over a yard out, just around Wijndal and tucked in inside the far post as Marco Bizot missed the ball by a hair. A 1-1 score was more in line with expectations, and PSV kept pressing for more.

At 52’ Gastón Pereiro finally put PSV into the lead, and they held it until disaster struck at 89’. Pereiro fouled Friday on a corner, landing in the book and putting Friday on the penalty spot. Friday sent Zoet the wrong way and it was suddenly 2-2 in a game most thought would be 4-0 in PSV’s favor. The AZ fans were so worked up to pull PSV into a possible shootout, something van Bommel has had problems with since taking over. PSV continued to press, and 5’ of stoppage time was announced, which turned out to be plenty of time for Antonio Marin. A thrown in from Antônio Carlos was taken by Marin, sent across the field to Aziz Behich, who moved forward and crossed it into the box for Marin to head into the left side netting from the right. Fans heads were spinning as the game resembled a tennis match, but Marin has rescued it with less than a minute to go in the game.

“That was impressive” remarked van Bommel after the game “Two young players, they played to the best of their abilities. If Antônio [Carlos] keeps scoring, he’s going to be a force.”

PSV would be drawn with Telstar, a Keuken Kampioen Divisie team, in Quarter Final. Telstar would get the advantage of hosting, but they shouldn’t be nearly as much trouble as AZ.

Eredivisie (H) : PSV 3 - SBV Excelsior 0


The final game before the long winter break would present van Bommel with an opportunity for a bit of a breather. Steven Bergwijn would be added to the list of players suffering a winter illness and would be out for this game. Sékou Sidibé would get the call in place of Bergwijn as van Bommel has needed to dip into Jong PSV quite a bit.

Jeroen Zoet, back in the doghouse, would sit in favor of Lars Unnerstall today and he would barely have anything to do. Excelsior just wilted under PSV’s attack, after giving up a goal to Derrick Luckassen on a corner it just kept getting worse. PSV enjoyed 64% possession, and as expected the little time Excelsior had on the ball was pinned in their own third. Their few shots were speculative at best off route one style attacks with Elías Már Ómarsson left on his own up top. Willian Arão would take over the midfield, scoring a goal and taking home the Player of The Match award.

PSV would hold on to their (9) point lead on top of the league as Ajax moved into third as they close on a flagging Vitesse who now holds 2nd by only (4) points. The long break coming up would give PSV a chance to get healthy and possibly make some transfers.



Working around two friendlies, a 3-0 win over St. Pauli and a 3-1 win over Palermo, van Bommel’s rest period devolved into more roster drama that eventually helped improve their chances in the second half of the season. The primary nuisance would be the circling vultures trying to unsettle Antônio Carlos as PSG (£11M), Juventus (£11M), Borussia Dortmund (£10M), Manchester United (£8M), and West Ham (£8.5) would come calling for his services. All offers were rejected as it’s starting to look like anything less than £100M won’t even move the needle for PSV.

More available and less valuable players were swayed by transfer offers, with one of them representing a golden opportunity. For unknown reasons Manchester City lodged a £8.5M offer for Jeroen Zoet, which he was keen to have accepted, and Toon Gerbrands wasn’t willing to look the gift horse in the mouth. Inside sources indicate that Gerbrands and van Bommel didn’t have to think about this one for too long since they had been aggressively scouting goalies for some time, and the £8.5M would really help with finding a potential replacement.

PSV fans were quickly distracted from the news of Zoet’s transfer by two important contract extensions. Antonio Marin (£1.M/year) and Maximiliano Romero (£575,000/year) agreed to new (5) year contracts that locked them up through 2024. Locking up two of the most promising young players in the Eredivisie became a huge win for van Bommel and managed to ease fears that both might leave sooner than expected.

Senior Transfers - Out
Daniel Schwaab (CB, Sheffield United) £4.3M
Trent Sainsbury (CB, Bologna) £2.6M
Jeroen Zoet (GK, Manchester City) £8.5M

Senior Transfers - In
Jack Butland (GK, Stoke) £9.5M

Final Transfer List (Impact Signings)
Bruno Costa (CAM, Indiana Fire - Portugal) Free

Lars Unnerstall was quite ready to take over in goal, the media had already broken into arguments about his ability to handle the #1 jersey when he got tossed aside for the introduction of Jack Butland. The young and experienced keeper represented a serious upgrade over the departed Zoet which begged the question of why Manchester City didn’t go after him as he was right under their nose. For a slight upcharge, financed by the departures of Schwaab and Sainsbury, van Bommel was able to land a really good player at a serious discount. The fact that Butland has not played in the Champions League this season, and thus is eligible to play right away, was a major selling point. Nick Viergever will take the captain’s band from Zoet, and PSV fans won’t need to complain about their GK every other game. Unnerstall, while disappointed, will remain the second choice GK.



As if the Football Gods needed to remind van Bommel that life is cruel, a number of injury blows landed during this period. Angeliño (Hamstring), Bruno Henrique (Groin strain), and Eugene Konoplyanka (Pulled abdominal muscle) would all be out for 3-4 weeks heading into the second half of the season.

Sainsbury is out, noooooooooo

Eredivisie (H) : PSV 4 - Vitesse 1


A week after a patchwork squad beat ADO Den Haag 4-0 Mark van Bommel had the pleasure of piecing together a squad around injuries once again. This time Maximiliano Romero was out for 9-12 days after a pulled thigh in training the day before the match, perfect timing as usual. His absence would make room for Rinus Bakayoko, who Juventus tried to purchase for £3.0M the week before, on the bench. Steven Bergwijn would get the call at LW with Bruno Henrique and Eugene Konoplyanka unavailable.

If this game had happened a month ago it would have come with more fanfare, but Vitesse is starting to slide down the table and a date with PSV would do nothing to halt their fall. Luuk de Jong and César Montes would score in the first half to put Vitesse in a hole they would not look like climbing out of. Mato Jajalo would score at 54’ minutes to summon van Bommel from the dugout, clearly displeased by the way the central defense stood around and let him run though. He would stay in the technical area until Montes was fouled in the box at 64’ for an Antonio Marin penalty and a 3-1 lead. Bergwijn scored again in stoppage time and the 4-1 win sent Vitesse falling even farther.

The win which knocked Vitesse to 3rd thanks to Ajax winning 3-1 over FC Groningen wouldn’t come without some sacrifice. Antônio Carlos would need to be carted off after falling to the ground a little over a minute before the final whistle, it would turn out to be a pulled calf muscle that would keep him out up to three weeks. An unpleasant blow, but something van Bommel would just need to work through.

KNVB Cup (A) : Telstar 1 - PSV 4


Despite being heavy favorites this game would weigh on van Bommel, with injuries coming regularly it started to look like he wouldn’t have a squad by the time they played Real Madrid. A 3-0 win over FC Twente would be soured by an ankle injury to Steven Bergwijn that sent him off at halftime, even seeing Vitesse fall further out of contention with a 2-1 loss to Heracles Almelo wouldn’t ease his mind.

“Ajax is still there, they aren’t going away” said van Bommel prior to the game “and if I lose anyone else I’ll have to move the whole Jong PSV roster up. Maybe I’ll need to dust my boots off.”

With the first team exhausted it seemed like today would be the perfect opportunity to give the second team a shot. With all the injuries van Bommel had to field (4) Jong PSV players, something he wouldn’t normally want to be forced into doing. Aziz Behich and Sékou Sidibé would be joined by Rinus Bakayoko and Prince Diomandé, add in Pelayo Morilla and Ryan Gravenberch and there wouldn’t be a single starter over the age of 20 aside from Willian Arão. If this seemed like an opening for Telstar it slammed shut just 6’ into the game when Bruno Viana headed in a goal on a corner.

Up 1-0 already, things got really weird and then rapidly spiraled out of control for the hosts. At 9’ Sondre Stokke would score an impressive goal on a free kick, hitting the crossbar in the space between Lars Unnderstall’s arm and the side of his face to leave him looking embarrassed. Telstar’s fans would barely have time to celebrate, about two minutes to be exact, as Arão delivered a Marlon Frey Special by coming into the box late and hammering in a shot from near the arc to restore the lead at 2-1. Then just a minute later Gravenberch would do something similar, this time slipping from deep in the box to come onto a pass near the right post. His run would bring Sven van der Maaten to the near post, but Gravenberch would send the shot back to the left and catch him off balance. Giving up three goals in the span of six minutes basically killed off Telstar, and when Diomandé scored at 53’ it really did them in.

The 4-1 win would be PSV’s 10th straight win in the KNVB Cup and the 13th straight win since losing to Barcelona. FC Twente would be left wondering how they could be so lucky, after losing to PSV 3-0 they would get paired up again for the Semi-Final. The media would go into a frenzy over the potential final, with Ajax drawing a Keuken Kampioen Divisie team (FC Volendam) the possibility of a De Topper Derby final was too much.

Dominant win

Wins are plentiful at the minute, which is great to see. The signing of Butland looks rather astute at such a measly fee. He should provide a real boost in-between the sticks.

2019-04-23 09:04#256111 ScottT : Wins are plentiful at the minute, which is great to see. The signing of Butland looks rather astute at such a measly fee. He should provide a real boost in-between the sticks.

I literally have no idea what Man City was doing when they came for Zoet, and I was stunned when Stoke accepted that offer. I saw he was unhappy, but there was no way I could offer him a bigger contract than Stoke. Maybe being in the Champions League is a hidden incentive?

In what is starting to become an annual tradition, PSV was inundated with stupid transfer offers just before the window closed and walked away with a bunch of angry players. Steven Bergwijn, Ryan Gravenberch, Derrick Luckassen, Angeliño, Aziz Behich, Luuk de Jong, and Antonio Valencia were all the subject of offers that made absolutely no sense for PSV to accept. That didn’t stop Angeliño, Bergwijn, and Luckassen from pulling the ploy van Bommel and Toon Gerbrands have proven to be resistant to. All three of them are under contract until 2022 or 2023, so they were all told that they would not be given a new contract which they didn’t take particularly well.

Eredivisie (H) : PSV 8 - N.E.C. Nijmegen 0


The parade of Jong PSV players continued today with Nick Viergever worn out and Angeliño injured, but this time van Bommel gave youngster Philippe Wiltord the nod over Aziz Behich. The youngster has been showing promise and he likely has a longer future at PSV than Behich, today would be as good a day as any to give him a start.

Just 2’ into the game and the home crowd was left wondering what they just saw. Luuk de Jong would send a shot high, hit the crossbar and send the ball bouncing straight up and down right on the line. PSV’s players even started to celebrate before noticing the ball just barely stayed out, and Björn Kopplin got to the ball before de Jong could react and kicked it clear. Even David Mitov Nilsson thought it went in and didn’t even try to collect the ball. The momentary sense that N.E.C. had dodged a bullet quickly evaporated when Gastón Pereiro definitely kicked it over the line at 3’ and started the avalanche of goals. By 9’ Robert Arboleda and Antonio Marin had scored to make it 3-0, a penalty at 23’ gave Marin his second and Steven Bergwijn’s at 31’ sent PSV into the half up 5-0.

While the final score would be unbelievable, this was more about N.E.C. being exceedingly sloppy than it was about PSV being that great. Their dedication to committing fouls over tackles gave Periero four separate chances on a free kick in generally the same area outside the box. Apparently the 4th time was the charm for Periero, and he made them pay with a goal at 48’. Arbeloda and Bergwijn scored again and four different players had scored twice, not something N.E.C. were planning on.

Eredivisie (A) : sc Heerenveen 1 - PSV 4


The second team would be under pressure for a result after the previous week. Jong PSV clinched the Keuken Kampioen Divisie title, still perfect at 27-0-0 and an eye watering (47) points better than 2nd place Fortuna Sittard, and Antonio Marin scored his 18th goal in all competitions in their 1-0 win over NAC Breda.

Injuries and tired legs would push two youngsters into the starting lineup with Ivanildo Wennmars and Rinus Bakayoko getting the call. Wennemars would be first to draw some attention, but not the kind of attention he was looking for. A careless foul on Yûki Kobayashi at 15’, clearly a veteran player exploiting a youngster, put sc Heerenveen on the penalty spot with a chance to take the lead. Amazingly, for the first time in van Bommel’s run as manager the penalty was blocked. Jack Butland, who has been playing on another level since joining from Stoke, has already made everyone forget about Jeroen Zoet. When the tables were turned and Pelayo Morilla stood on the penalty spot, he didn’t miss and put PSV up 1-0.

With PSV up 2-0 after halftime it took Bakayoko a minute to score his first senior goal, a wonderful through ball to his outside shoulder allowed Bakayoko to show his speed as Stijn Schaars got caught turning around and Bakayoko let the ball roll past him before hammering it into the right side of the net. It was 3-0 before Ondrej Mihalik scored at 79’ as Angeliño blew his defensive assignment on the back side, allowing Mihalik to run free at the back post and head in a low cross. Morilla scored a second time to regain the previous margin, and that held to give PSV yet another solid win.

Van Bommel did not escape this game without further agitation as Bruno Viana added to PSV’s growing list of red cards. A pointless challenge at 92’ put Viana in the book for a second time, a troubling trend that people assumed was over when Nicolas Isimat-Mirin was sold.

Poor NEC

12 goals in 2 games is absolutely stonking

Well... those games were comfortable enough!

2019-04-25 02:03#256202 Griffo : Poor NEC

It was like they were trying to foul outside the box, I might have had eight total free kicks just outside the box and all of them were on target.

Champions League (H) : PSV 2(2) - Real Madrid 0(0)


The build up for this game was painful, specifically the rising fatalism of PSV fans. The question was “how bad” instead of being focused on getting a result. With Real Madrid visiting in the first game there would be an enormous amount of pressure if they managed a big away win, most media outlets agreed that a big road win for PSV was out of the question.

Massimiliano Allegri was certainly at and advantage as Mark van Bommel was forced to field a weakened first team. Eugene Konoplyanka and Antônio Carlos were both out injured, two key players van Bommel could really use. The home crowd was excited, but it was hard to ignore that the excitement might have been more for Real Madrid than PSV. That sentiment was quickly reversed when Antonio Marin added yet another chapter to his legend with a stunning goal just 6’ into the game to put the hosts up 1-0. A Casemiro slide tackle halted a run from Marin into the box, sending the ball bounding just outside for him to collect. Casemiro was slow to close on Marin and he spun and sent a looping shot with his left foot that could have been a cross to Luuk de Jong, but the ball bounced and Keylor Navas realized it was just barely going to go inside the far post too late. Navas would dive, but to no avail, and end up with his face in the side netting as PSV’s fans went crazy.

“It was a shot” smirked Marin after the game “definitely, I meant to do that.”

Perhaps it was the Marin goal, but Real Madrid did not look like a dominant force and could not get going on offense. Steven Bergwijn would steal the ball in transition and put PSV on a 4-v-2 break away, Marin’s shot would be blocked by Navas and a solid opportunity to go up 2-0 would put Real Madrid on notice. The 4-1-2-3 that tends to give van Bommel trouble was neutered, surprisingly Real Madrid went into halftime with only three shots and not a single one on target. New additional Jack Butland spent more time cheering the team on than touching the ball.



Real Madrid tried to reassert themselves in the second half, but found themselves frustrated and constantly stymied or on their heels against PSV’s press. As the game approached a conclusion it looked like the visitors would escape with a minor slap on the wrist, a 1-0 deficit would be manageable at home, but as the clock hit 90’ things went horribly wrong. Steve Bergwijn sent a cross in that de Jong headed into Navas, a great save, and rolled just outside the left of the goal area to Periero who hammered it back into Navas for another great save. Unfortunately for Navas that great save sent the ball right into a waiting de Jong who barely needed to lift his left foot to send the ball into the net right between Sergio Ramos and Milan Skriniar. Allegri wasn’t smiling anymore.

Being up 2-0 was soured in stoppage time as the normally solid Tonny Vilhena did something really stupid. Already in the books and warned to ease off tackles, Vilhena put a brutal tackle on Isco at the sidelines at 90+2’ and was quickly booked again to leave PSV down a man and without his services in the next game. The 4-2-3 held off Real Madrid and when the whistle blew the fans went crazy as Allegri shook hands with van Bommel and rapidly vanished down the tunnel. Getting shut out on the road put them in trouble, though few doubted they could win by more than two at home.

Eredivisie (A) : Vitesse 0 - PSV 4


Vitesse Manager Foeke Booy and the fans must be wondering how things could fall apart so quickly for them, if they didn’t need a trip to PSV for the first meeting they definitely didn’t need them to come visit. After PSV won 4-1 against AZ Alkmaar and Ajax drew 1-1 with ADO Den Haag last week the visitors would enjoy a (12) point lead at the top of the table. An Ajax win earlier in the day, 4-1 over PEC Zwolle, would put Vitesse (9) points behind Ajax in third and desperate for points against the worst possible opponent. The fact that PSV had even more injuries, losing César Montes and Bruno Viana for 3-5 weeks, didn’t seem to brighten their prospects. After PSV’s 4-1 win over PEC Zwolle two weeks ago they could boast (3) players with (10) or more goals scored just in the Eredivisie.

Perhaps their plummet was enough motivation to get their act together, or maybe PSV were looking ahead to their KNVB Cup match in a few days, but Vitesse came out strong and looked like the better team in the first half. The poor performance summoned van Bommel from the dugout earlier than usual, and based on his body language it wasn’t a secret that the hairdryer would be ready at halftime.

Whatever van Bommel said, or how loud he said it, PSV listened and finally broke the game open. Two goals in the first 7’ of the second half, one of them an own goal, saw Vitesse crumble in the face of a 2-0 deficit. Maximiliano Romero would score at 59’ and Bruno Henrique would kill the game off at 74’.

As usual, the Football Gods gave and took away in likely unequal amounts. The victory today meant that PSV only needs (10) point from their seven remaining games in order to clinch the league, something that seems more likely to happen in the next three games if Ajax drop any points. The down side was Angeliño, who was subbed off with an apparent hamstring injury, would be out for 9-11 days after that injury turned out to be more serious. With the deciding game against Real Madrid looming any injury feels serious.

KNVB Cup (A) : FC Twente 0 - PSV 4


If PSV and their fans were looking past this game to Real Madrid, they certainly didn’t show it. FC Twente were probably still scarred from their earlier 3-0 beating in the same venue, and things only got worse this time around. Despite an even split in possession, FC Twente were buried under a barrage of shots.

Lucas Bijker had one of the worst games of his life, finishing with a 5.9 rating, as he was tasked with slowing down Antonio Marin. That did not go well, penalty aside, Marin had his way all game and finished solidly as the Player of The Match. His (2) goals would put him firmly as PSV’s leading scorer with little signs of slowing down.

The win set up a De Topper KNVB Cup Final as Ajax beat FC Volendam 1-0 without putting in much effort, now van Bommel would be extremely motivated to win the cup for a second year in a row.