Michal Sadílek claimed a starring role Saturday night. The Czech midfielder offloaded Gastón Pereiro early in the match and put PSV on track for victory with the 2-1. "This is a wonderful evening," he said.
'Yes this is wonderful'
"Falling in, scoring and winning. Yes this is wonderful," Sadílek responded immediately after the game in the catacomb of the Philips Stadium. "It was difficult, the tempo was too slow and the game was not good. The coach (Mark van Bommel, ed.) told me to warm up. After three minutes he already said that I had to go in and that I mainly had to do my own thing. That is mainly getting into the duels, conquering balls and passing," said the 19-year-old midfielder who scored immediately after halftime.
"I knew I had to come for my man," he said of that. "It was a deliberate slide and therefore a nice goaltending in the end. Although I also have to say that Chucky's ball was nice too."
Isimat happy
Nicolas Isimat also saw that. The Frenchman made his first minutes in the Eredivisie this season. "It's good to play again," Isimat said afterwards. "When I heard it I wasn't stressed, I was calm. I think we wanted to play a little too nicely in the first half. In the second half it went better. AZ has a good team, I'm glad we won from them."
Van Bommel: 'Most difficult match'
"They had it tactically very well together," Van Bommel agreed with his players' words. "We were lucky to make it 1-1 from the first chance, because AZ made it very difficult for us. I thought this was the most difficult game of the first half of the season," he said at the press conference. That was part of the reason for intervening before halftime and bringing on Sadílek. "You shouldn't wait until halftime if you think you can get a grip on an opponent in a different way. I felt this was necessary and I'm glad we won in the end. We look back on a nice first half of the season."