PSV kicks off against sc Heerenveen on Thursday at home for the fifteenth round of the season. The club maintains a good series against the Frisians, and should the main squad record a victory, it will set another fine statistic.
Last season's home game was an important one for PSV in the battle for second place. The team was able to secure a win against the Frisians, taking the lead within 15 minutes through Ibrahim Sangaré, but was looking at a 2-1 deficit at halftime. The visitors even managed to increase the lead to 3-1. Yet a resilient PSV managed to get a point from the game: captain Luuk de Jong scored the tying goal and in the closing stages Xavi Simons scored the 3-3 from the penalty spot. Since the draw, PSV has won all its league matches (fifteen).
Unbeaten
PSV lost only 1 of its 23 home matches against sc Heerenveen in the Eredivisie this century (W15-G7-V1). In 2009, Danijel Pranjić shot the Frisians to a win for the last time at Philips Stadion with a penalty in injury time.
Of the 31 home games played against sc Heerenveen, PSV won 19, drew eight and lost four. PSV is on its longest unbeaten run against Heerenveen in the Eredivisie: in the past ten encounters, from 2017 to the present, the teams won four times and stuck to a draw six times.
Championship games
PSV has fond memories of home matches against the Frisians. In 2002, for example, when the club crowned themselves national champions. With Eric Gerets at the helm, PSV won 3-0 through goals by Arnold Bruggink, Mark van Bommel and Mateja Kežman. Also in the 2014-2015 season, PSV 1 got to lift the championship trophy after a victory over sc Heerenveen. A convincing 4-1 victory secured the 22nd title. Memphis Depay, Luciano Narsingh and Luuk de Jong (2x) scored.
Equalling
For the second time in Eredivisie history, a club has managed to win all of its first fourteen games of the season. PSV did this once before, in 1987-1988 under Guus Hiddink (first seventeen). In this season, PSV also captured the UEFA Champions League for the first time in its club history, when the trophy was still called the European Cup I.
With the long winning streak, Head Coach Peter Bosz has passed one of his predecessors, Mark van Bommel, as the coach with the longest streak in the Eredivisie since joining a club. Van Bommel won his first 13 games as head coach with the main squad in 2018. PSV (W27-G6-V1) can record at least 28 Eredivisie victories in a calendar year for the fourth time in club history, after 2006 (30), 1987 (29) and 2017 (28).
Magic limit
That PSV is on a roll can be called an understatement. The team has scored at least two goals in each of its last seventeen league games, since a 1-0 win at home to Sparta Rotterdam in May. Only Ajax ever set such a run in the Eredivisie: nineteen games in a row in 2012.
In addition, this year's list leader already accounted for 97 Eredivisie goals in 2023. The Eindhoven natives reached the 100 Eredivisie goals in one year mark only twice before: in 1987 (110) and 1995 (107). With two duels left on the schedule, the club can join that list.
Successful dribbles
Both teams boast dribble-prone outfielders. After 14 games played, sc Heerenveen winger Osame Sahraoui (43) and Johan Bakayoko (42) lead the list of most successful dribbles in the Eredivisie.
Osame Sahraoui is also sc Heerenveen's club top scorer in this Eredivisie season with four goals. That is the shared highest number among Norwegian players this season, alongside Oliver Edvardsen of Go Ahead Eagles and Sparta Rotterdam midfielder Joshua Kitolano.
