Mark van Bommel looked back extensively on PSV's Champions League campaign after the match. "The point feels like a reward for the growth we have experienced," he said.
Borisov
The adventure for PSV started in August with a preliminary round match against BATE Borisov. In Belarus, the team looked nervous, could have easily been behind halfway through the match, but managed to promote a 1-1 draw to a 3-2 victory after halftime. "If you see how anxious we played then and how we played tonight in Italy it looks very good," Van Bommel thought.
"We played here in a way I do like," the head coach continued. "With guts and a will to do everything to get a result over the line. From these games we learn an awful lot. Inter really had to. That we stayed upright is clever."
Handanovic
PSV still lost the home game against Inter in unfortunate fashion. Something that still bothers Van Bommel a bit. "I often come back to that match, where Handanovic should have been given a red at a 1-0 lead for us. If we had won that match, we would have been fighting for overwintering in Europe." Handsome in a pool like this, Van Bommel believes. "We can play along with the big clubs, we have seen that. Only we don't manage to get that result over the line. That is not illogical if you look at the opponents. If we had gone through we would have had a super performance."
Campaign
That didn't work out, but the 1-1 did lift the coach's head. "It was a nice campaign of eight games in which players grew, we grew as a team, in which players became internationals and in which we really got better. That point then feels a bit like a reward."