PSV beat NEC with ease to go one point off top
PSV picked up a comfortable home win against NEC Nijmegen on Sunday in the Eredivisie. The Eindhoven outfit is now just one point off leaders Ajax, with the teams set to face each other next weekend. The goals were scored by Anwar El Ghazi, Luuk de Jong, and Noni Madueke.
The atmosphere in the Philips stadium was jovial before kick-off as the Eindhoven side was coming off the back of a massive win against Arsenal on Thursday, which sealed their progression to the Europa League knockout stages. Luuk de Jong returned for his first start since his injury at the beginning of the season. PSV faced an out-of-form NEC side that had not won in their last nine league games.
Ruud van Nistelrooij’s side started the match well. Anwar El Ghazi was denied by a top save from Jasper Cillessen within a minute of the game starting.
El Ghazi eventually got his goal after 18 minutes. A Cody Gakpo took the ball off his teammate Phillip Mwene before lofting a cross into the box for El Ghazi to side-foot home.
NEC was lucky not to concede from kick-off again half a minute later. Xavi Simons lobbed a ball over the PSV defence for the onrushing Gakpo, but his finish was not placed well enough as Cillessen made the save.
Just like it happened twice in the first half, PSV cut NEC open straight from the kick-off. Phillip Sandler took down Simons for a penalty that was given after Martin van den Kerkhof was sent to the screen to review his original decision. Fortunately for PSV, van den Kerkhof stuck with his decision. Jasper Cillessen is notorious for having a poor record at stopping penalties, and this was no different as De Jong rolled the ball into the corner.
Fatigue started to set in for PSV after the side had worked hard on Thursday to defeat Arsenal, but besides a big chance for captain Ivan Marquez, NEC could not trouble the PSV defence.
Van Nistelrooij’s side added a third, and Noni Madueke got his first off the season. Madueke recently returned from a lengthy injury layoff, and PSV will be happy to see the English winger regaining his sharpness.
PSV will be one point behind Ajax next Sunday when they travel to Amsterdam to face Alfred Schreuder’s side. Ajax does, however, have a game in hand.
