Jorrit Hendrix played ninety minutes for the first time this season against Granada on Thursday, but stepped off the field empty-handed at the final whistle. According to the midfielder, PSV could not continue the strong end of the first half after halftime.
Dropping out of Götze
According to Hendrix, the loss of goal scorer Mario Götze had nothing to do with that. "Mario is a world-class player, but we have a team full of good players," Hendrix said. The German put PSV ahead at the stroke of halftime with a dry blast, but had to stay behind in the locker room due to an injury. "We went into the locker room with a good feeling. You think you can continue that line in the second half, but the start was difficult. The moment we got a little better, we scored two goals," Hendrix analyzed.
Whether that was due to PSV or just a strong second half from Granada, Hendrix could not say. "It's a combination of I think. We didn't come out of the locker room best and they just started playing better." PSV failed to turn the game around after that.
Fought, but lost
After Machis' 1-2, PSV failed to turn the game around. Head coach Roger Schmidt: "We were missing a number of players today. When another player drops out with an injury, you can expect a tough second half. Especially since an opponent is going to develop pressure when behind. We knew that and Granada did. I can't blame my players much. We had quite a few setbacks, but they kept fighting. Unfortunately that wasn't enough."