He was beaming from ear to ear. Matchwinner Steven Bergwijn handed down the verdict on Excelsior on Saturday night, telling PSV afterwards that after three draws, he was relieved with a win. "Nice, this one was needed," he said.
Bergwijn said so in the catacomb after the match. "There was pressure," the striker agreed after losing points in recent weeks. "When you play at PSV you are used to always winning. You always have to. It's nice that we can add three points again."
His two hits made Bergwijn the first player this premier league year to reach double figures in both goals and assists. Eleven goals the striker has scored so far, twelve times he has given an assist. "I have been working on it," Bergwijn confessed. "The last few weeks we got a lot of criticism. So did I. We watched a lot of footage with the trainers and knew we just had to keep doing our thing."
De Jong: 'Never gave Excelsior the feeling there was something to gain '
Captain Luuk de Jong thought PSV played a solid game against the Rotterdammers. "We didn't do anything crazy today. We played dominant and didn't give away any chances," he said. De Jong saw his team show recovery after a string of lesser results. "Last games we suffered from sloppy phases where we lost a lot of ball. That allows the opponent to grow into the match. We didn't do that today. We didn't let Excelsior come into the game."
De Jong wants to take the good feeling this victory brings with it into the remainder of the league. "There are still so many duels to play, it is important that we keep the focus," he said.