Hirving Lozano struggled for more than 80 minutes against VVV-Venlo, but Mark van Bommel kept faith. He left the striker standing and saw him blossom from the 80th minute on. "I think he finishes him very nicely," the coach said.
Relieved
After 80 minutes without a major chance, the striker came unstuck. In the 82nd minute, Lozano shot between two opponents eloquently but just wide. Three minutes later, the Mexican got his due by finishing a clever dribble effectively. "I thought he played well," said Van Bommel, who thus successfully kept the striker on. "Very diligent, constantly playable between the lines. That sometimes goes wrong, but it can also go well. You saw that with the goal."
The coach said so at FOX Sports, where he was asked if he was relieved with the three-peat after a difficult match. "No," he joked. "Yes of course I am relieved. We had a very difficult time against a very stiff opponent. On artificial turf, that doesn't help."
The Young
Captain Luuk de Jong also thanked Lozano. "We had a hard time getting through. They had formed pairings in midfield and kept it incredibly close. Fortunately, we have Chucky," De Jong said of the Mexican's action.
"You have to be a little smarter in the passes," he analyzed his team's play afterward. "Sometimes we play too easy balls behind the defense. It went at too slow a pace. Sometimes you have to make a fore-action, provide more movement, but we don't do that enough."
Still, PSV did strike again in the closing stages. "We shouldn't lean on this, but we know we have the qualities to still score. And that's what happened."