PSV comes up against effective Ajax

PSV got a painful lesson in effectiveness on Saturday at PSV Campus De Herdgang. While the odds were clearly in PSV's favor throughout the match, the team failed to score, where Ajax struck at crucial moments and took the victory.

The beginning of the match looked fine for the O16. The predominance of the early stages looked like it was soon going to be cashed in when Jaivy was lightly touched in the penalty area in the ^8th minute and the referee pointed to the spot. Right or wrong, Jaivy took his own place behind the ball to shoot in the penalty and give PSV a deserved lead. However, the goalkeeper hardly had to go to the corner and even grabbed the poorly inserted penalty. PSV then sorely failed to finish off the chances they did create and also failed to take advantage of the fact that two Ajax defenders were shown a yellow card early in the match. So that could almost mean only one thing, and that was at a crucial moment: Ajax was awarded a penalty in the^second minute of extra playing time of the^first half when goalkeeper Rick ran out on a breakaway attacker, played the ball but took the player down in his action. Ajax didn't let that outside chance be taken away at a very nice moment, and shot the ball in a controlled manner, 0-1.

The^second half presented much the same picture. PSV created more chances, although twice they had to clear a ball off the line. The most dangerous were the two smallest men on the pitch, both with headers. In the ^54th minute, Seb, who had returned from a long injury, placed the ball at the^far post on the head of Chahid. In the ^21st minute, Tyron sent in an excellent cross from the other end to Jamal, who was completely free in front of the goal. When chances like this are not taken advantage of, it usually goes to fall on the other side. And that's exactly what happened. In the ^69th minute, Ajax played a situation in the penalty area well, after which the right-wing striker had all the time he needed to pick out a corner, 0-2.

PSV has dropped a few places in the rankings due to the loss, but has played a game less than the rest and is therefore virtually^second behind leader Ajax. Next Saturday, PSV will play another home game, then Vitesse will visit at 2:30 pm.

Setup
Rick Jonkers; Seb Loeffen (/61 Shi-jon Martina), Milan Govaers ©, Yaël Gil y Muinos (/58 Tijmen Niekel), Julian Kuijpers (/54 Jesper Uneken); Sven Simons (/65 Ruben van Bommel), Matteo Dams, Chahid el Allachi; Jamal Gonzaga, Jaivy Lourens (/46 Mido Hamelynck), Tyron Perret Gentil.

Yellow card: Julian Kuijpers