Credit where credit is due. PSV made short work of home club AZ in the first 45 minutes, but forgot to extend the score.
It actually became a bit exciting during injury time of the match in the AFAS stadium in Alkmaar. Bosz had confidence after 45 minutes and made a lot of changes from half-time. Noa Lang and Jerdy Schouten remained behind in the dressing room, and the story behind Schouten’s substitution is now known. The midfielder seemed to drop out with minimal injury, but will miss the third group match in the Champions League, visiting Paris Saint-Germain.
Bosz also took Mauro Juníor off the field in the second half and that substitution was of course also made with a view to the match against Paris Saint-Germain. The Brazilian is considered top fit again and plays well in whatever position he is posted. In the first half, Mauro Juníor showed a beautiful example of football in his own half by wrong-footing and passing two oncoming AZ players with a beautiful feint and foot movement. At that moment it was already 0-2 and PSV was already playing against 10 men.
After the red card, the Alkmaar crowd appeared to be bored and especially grumpy because the stands of the AFAS stadium quickly realized after the red card that there was nothing they could do against this PSV with 10 men. It brought thoughts back to last season and so the AZ crowd reacted to Noa Lang, for example, but also to the referee, who could no longer do anything good. Every violation by a PSV player was accompanied by insults towards the referee, who, in the eyes of the AZ fans, should have drawn a yellow card for the PSV player in question who committed a violation.
Yet there also appeared to be room for sportsmanship as Mauro Juníor received applause from some of the AZ fans after his wonderful action in the first half. Then again, yes. During halftime of the match between the two teams, there was a resigned and bored atmosphere in the stands. In the various rooms of the grandstand, people talked calmly about the match, which, in the eyes of the AZ fans, would have no chance in the second half.
The away section filled with 750 PSV fans sang to AZ’s reserve goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet. Just like the AZ fans, Bosz said afterwards that he was annoyed. “I was very annoyed today. The second half was nothing. I didn’t like it. I agree with Luuk that we should have made it third, fourth and fifth.”
Was Peter Bosz, just like a number of PSV supporters who always seem to forget that the Belgian attacker gets double or sometimes even triple coverage week in and week out, also annoyed by Johan Bakayoko? “No, I wasn’t annoyed by Johan. It is true that as a team we have not delivered what we can and therefore should deliver. AZ starts very conservatively with a low block with five men behind. We didn’t expect that, they normally don’t do that either. That shows how they view us. I thought we should have gone more through the middle instead of the sides. And yes, the second half…I didn’t like it.”
