PSV beat Excelsior to win their first game back and equal record from 1988

PSV has started the new year convincingly. The league leader defeated Excelsior 3-1 in Eindhoven on Saturday. With seventeen consecutive victories, PSV equaled the record from the 1987/1988 season, when the Eindhoven team led by Guus Hiddink also won the first seventeen league matches. The current PSV can break the record next Sunday if they win against FC Utrecht.

PSV Manager Peter Bosz and general manager Marcel Brands warned against complacency at Wednesday's New Year's reception. Brands referred to the home match against Ajax at the end of October, when PSV, against all expectations, trailed at halftime and gave away many chances. In the end, they still won 5-2. Bosz, in turn, indicated that he wanted to immediately deprive league challengers Feyenoord of all hope when the competition resumed.

PSV looked sharp and didn't give Excelsior a chance. It didn't take long for the opening goal to be scored. André Ramalho headed a corner kick onto Excelsior goalkeeper Stijn van Gassel in the 13th minute, after which Luuk de Jong was the sharpest in the rebound (1-0). A few minutes later, De Jong headed in the second goal of a pass from Sergiño Dest. The 2-0 also meant that PSV had scored at least two goals in twenty league games in a row. That's also a record. Ajax was the record holder from 2012 with nineteen matches with at least two goals.

Guus Til also scored in the first half, but that goal was disallowed for offside.

De Jong was successful again after the break. In the 69th minute, he scored from close range, assisted by Ramalho, to make it 3-0. Thanks to his three goals, the striker rose to tenth place on the list of all-time top scorers in the Eredivisie. The former international has now scored 164 times at the highest level in the Netherlands, two times more than Cor van der Gijp.

Noa Lang made his return to PSV fifteen minutes before the end. The Dutch international suffered a hamstring injury at the beginning of October. At the end of November, he briefly played as a substitute in the away match against FC Twente but then suffered a setback. Winger Yorbe Vertessen, who would like to leave this transfer period due to a lack of playing time, also came on in the final phase. Substitute Derensili Sanches Fernandes scored in the 82nd minute for Excelsior. Troy Parrott then missed a big chance for the Rotterdam team, who also saw a goal disallowed.