This evening we welcome Peter Bosz and his PSV Eindhoven squad to St. James’ Park for our latest Champions League match. PSV are enjoying an excellent season and are top of their domestic league by some distance. They are well coached, full of quality, and will give us a really tough test this evening as a result.
In our last home match against Manchester City in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final, we didn’t achieve the result that I felt our performance deserved. We started on the front foot and created plenty of opportunities in the first half without managing to covert one, and at half time were disappointed not to have more to show for our efforts.
When you play a team of the calibre of Manchester City, you are always vulnerable if you don’t take your chances, and early in the second half they took the lead. The players deserve credit for showing a positive response to this setback and created more opportunities to get back into the game. A second City goal with almost the last kick of the match was a blow and felt out of context with the game.
With fixtures coming thick and fast, there is little time to dwell on any one result, with only a small window to prepare for our away trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux. Wolves’ have been much improved in the past month and we knew we’d be in for a difficult match, which certainly proved to the case. In a closely-fought first half, I felt we created the better opportunities without scoring.
The match continued in the same vein after the break, and we continued to dominate possession. On the rare occasions Wolves threatened our goal, I felt the team defended well as a unit and nullified their threat on the break. So there were many positives to take from our performance, and a point on the road in the Premier League is always a point gained, but in the end we were disappointed not to have secured the win and all three points.
Tonight, we return to European action and will once again need our full squad to be ready when called upon. One pleasing aspect of our recent games has been the impact that the substitutes have had from the bench, and we will need this to continue in what is a very busy and intense month.
We’ll also need another special atmosphere under the lights at St. James’ Park to inspire the players, so please stay with us and we will do our best to reward your incredible support and create more memories.
Eddie Howe.
