In the exciting battle for the national title, PSV did not make a misstep Saturday night despite a numerical minority. Phillip Cocu's team battled to a 2-0 victory over Willem II after a red card by Santiago Arias. Marco van Ginkel and Luuk de Jong helped PSV over the deadlock with their goals.
De Jong goal disallowed
Knowing that PSV could not afford to lose any points, Cocu's team started sharply against the Tilburgers. Already in the second minute Arias, who played his 100th game in service of PSV on Saturday night, together with some fellow players appeared free in front of the Willem II goal. The Colombian then decided to go for his own success, which resulted in a shot wide. A little later, De Jong thought he could give PSV the lead. The captain found the goal with his head after a free kick, but his shot was rightly disallowed for offside. The biggest opportunity of the first quarter of an hour was yet to come. This time De Jong set Van Ginkel free with a fine pass, after which the midfielder rammed the ball hard onto the crossbar.
Willpower
After that good opening phase, PSV's level of play dropped. The team was no longer able to get through the Tilburg defense in a combined effort and had to hunt for the opening goal after the break. More than half an hour before the end of the match they even had to do so with ten men. Arias, who had already been shown yellow earlier in the match, pulled Joppen's shirt when the striker threatened to escape, which earned him his second yellow card and thus red. PSV, however, straightened its back and took the lead in 68th minute through sheer willpower. A corner kick landed at the feet of Van Ginkel and where he missed in the first half, he was now cool: 1-0. After a crazy phase full of yellow cards, missed chances and other delays, De Jong scored the liberating 2-0 from the penalty spot. After a foul on himself, the PSV captain got behind the ball and rammed his team into safety.
