After last weekend's topper against Feyenoord, the team of trainers Edwin de Wijs and Joonas Kolkka faced another club from Rotterdam on Saturday: Excelsior.

We also met this team at the end of September. Then in connection with the cup competition. Despite the "physical violence" they won 1-2.

In the league Excelsior is in the subtop: 1x win, 3x draw and 2 losses, they are in the middle of the table with 6 points. There is still a catch-up game to go.

PSV started well and got a penalty after only 3 minutes. Left back Lars Dickens came up and was tapped inside the penalty area. However, captain Justin Lonwijk shot the ball wide and missed the opportunity to take a quick lead. In the counterattack Excelior managed to find the net, but the goal was cancelled for offside.

PSV was warned and quickly picked up the pace. They dictated the game with good play. And that led to chances. After a wonderful long ball from Armando Obispo, Justin came alone in front of the goalkeeper in the 19th minute and wanted to elevator the ball over him. But the goalkeeper could just reach the ball and prevented the opening goal.

A little later, striker Cody Gakpo had a chance. After long possession of the ball, Justin was played free on the right. His cross ended up with Cody, who shot the ball straight at the goalkeeper. Two minutes later Excelsior suddenly took the lead after profiting from sloppy ball loss in midfield. At first goalkeeper Arne Lekens tapped the ball against the bar with his fingertips, but the rebound was easily headed in by a Rotterdam player.

PSV did not give up and stepped up their game. And got another great chance after half an hour of play. After another brilliant deep ball from Armando, Robin Schoonbrood was able to pass the ball in the penalty area to Cody, who again shot straight at the goalkeeper, who closed his legs just in time to stop Cody's effort.

Still, PSV equalized with Excelsior before halftime. After a well-run attack via Gaetan Bosiers, the ball landed against an Excelsior player's hand. And because he was standing inside the 16-meter line, the referee again pointed to the spot. This time Armando Obispo went to take the penalty and despite the goalkeeper still being at it, he scored in the left corner.

In the second half, Excelsior trapped PSV earlier. And the Eindhoven team had trouble with that. The game was a little messier. And it took until the 44th minute before PSV again bombarded the Excelsior goal.

After Justin was unfortunate again with a shot that went just over the goal, PSV took the lead in the 55th minute. Amar Catiç received the ball on the sideline near the halfway line. He played himself free and sent Yasin Aalillou into the deep. He outran his opponent, reached the back line and returned the ball. Amar was then able to shoot the ball in from close range: 1-2.

In the 62nd minute, the crazy 5 minutes began. It started with the situation that the referee whistled against Arne for the 6 second rule (where do you see that these days). The indirect free kick that was awarded obviously led to a lot of turmoil in the Eindhoven wall. Running out too early led to a yellow card and taking over the free kick. And for another card on the PSV side for comments on the lead. The second attempt was blocked after which the ball went up in the corner of the penalty area. Yasin entered the air duel where his opponent fell. The referee saw this as a foul and pointed to the same spot for the third time. Just like last week against Feyenoord, Arne turned the penalty away and made himself a true penalty killer. Fortunately for PSV, the mad 5 minutes lasted only 3 minutes and apart from a couple of cards they did not suffer any further damage.

Just before time Robin Schoonbrood had a chance to make it 1-3, but his effort went just wide.

Thus the match ended once again in a 1-2 victory for PSV. A deserved winner in which the team did itself short especially in the first half as it failed to put Excelsior at (big) disadvantage. Next week we get to visit the third team from Rotterdam: Sparta. A topper between the nos. 1 and 2.

Striking: I saw pretty much "yellow" from all the cards we got today.... Not one of the cards was for a foul but all for things like kicking the ball away, talking or running out too early at a free kick.


Arne Lekens; Baggio Wallenburg, James Fofana, Armando Obispo, Lars Dickens; Gaetan Bosiers (58' Jordan Teze), Robin Schoonbrood, Justin Lonwijk (c); Yasin Aalillou, Cody Gakpo (50' Amar Catiç), Leandro Fernandes.

Yellow cards: Leandro Fernandes, Baggio Wallenburg (both kicking the ball away), Justin Lonwijk, Robin Schoonbrood (both talking) and Yasin Aalillou (running in too early at free kick).