After Dante Rigo was the celebrated man last Saturday, on Tuesday night in Borisov it was another PSV player who reached PSV 1 via the youth side of De Herdgang. Donyell Malen was smiling from ear to ear afterwards after he gave PSV the win with a header in the 89th minute. "Whether it was my first ball contact? In my opinion, yes."
Equalizer
"I was just in the field and then they scored. Then if you can still make that 2-3, that's nice," Malen continued. "We had a lot of chances. We also played well, but more on moments. Especially when we were able to counter their counter. Then we were four against three or sometimes even four against two. We didn't take advantage of every chance, but won happily."
Impressed
"Quite a lot happened," Mark van Bommel opened his analysis somewhat soberly. Still, the PSV head coach was happy to emerge victorious after his first European match. "The most important thing of the evening is that after a very bad start, we recovered very well. We were really impressed by the opponent, the physical and aggressive. But suddenly we were back in control. The penalty made the confidence return."
Twenty goal attempts
Thus, PSV completely took over the initiative in the game. No less than twenty goal attempts were made by Van Bommel's team Tuesday night against BATE Borisov. "After the break, you do yourself wrong that you only score three goals," the coach felt. "I think at some point we should have made the 1-3, maybe even the 1-4. On the other hand, if you get the 2-2 against just before the end of the game and still win, you just have to be satisfied at the end. We kept fighting and held our own."