It was the match of seeing old teammates again. Mees Linders played against Jorg Verhoeven, who was his buddy at UDI in Uden. Jasper Nuininga and Tom Titarsolej played against Santino Vitale and Kenneth Paal where they had successes together at ESA in Arnhem. Coach Rudy had to make some adjustments because Gokhan Kardes was not fit enough to play (hamstring injury), Mees and Maarten had been sick. From the start, both sides battled with a lot of effort, but it did not lead to any real chances. Halfway through the first half a corner kick was headed in impeccably by Maarten Peijnenburg. The "corner kick-against" situations were also clearly NEC's Achilles heel; at another corner kick PSV almost scored again, but the ball was headed just wide. There was also the misfortune that a free kick from the edge of the box rolled over the goal line via the inside of the post and was eventually defused by the NEC goalkeeper. NEC did create some chances; after a nice pass from midfield, the NEC striker's effort was defused by a strong goalkeeper Yanick van Osch. Also a second attempt was neutralized by him by "playing good football". , cutting out the striker and calmly putting the ball back into play....

In the second half, after some more changes, the picture changed very little. Two hard-working teams that were unable to create any real chances. An interesting detail was that Tom and Kenneth Paal (NEC), brought in after halftime, were now on opposite sides... A misunderstanding in the NEC defense, of which Vincent Heilmann was the first to take advantage, led to the 0-2. NEC was unlucky that one of their free kicks was blocked by the crossbar. Just before the end of the game, a free kick on the edge of the "16" was converted by NEC: 1-2. The NEC striker could have made himself immortal by scoring with a nice "Fallrückzieher", but his shot was too weak.

Report courtesy of Paul Titarsolej