Steven Bergwijn once again provided two assists, but even more important for his feelings was the 1-0 he put on the scoreboard: "Finally again," the striker told FOX Sports.
For Mo
Bergwijn made his last goal against Heracles Almelo until, after more than an hour of play against VVV-Venlo, he sought out his direct opponent, spun him around and helped PSV over the deadlock with a streak into the long corner: "I hadn't scored for a while and finally it worked. Nice," said the goal scorer who, after his goal, sought out the camera and microphone to give teammate Mohamed Ihattaren heart because he lost his father.
"I woke up and then I saw the message in the group app," Bergwijn said of it. "Something like that cannot be described. When we got to the club, we immediately talked about it. Football doesn't matter for a moment then. We said to each other that we had to play for Mo. We had to get the three points anyway."
'Good first half'
That succeeded after a first half without goals, head coach Mark van Bommel observed. "It sounds crazy, but I thought we played very well in the first half," Van Bommel said, elaborating. "To the eye it was absolutely not spectacular, slow maybe even. But this is the way you want to control. VVV did get the biggest chance, but we pushed them back at that point after very far and played the ball quickly from side to side with short football. You see that in the end an opponent can no longer cope with that. Even if you don't directly create big chances. I think it's great that my team could bring that discipline. After halftime you see that something beautiful comes from that preparation."
Goosebumps
Of course, Van Bommel also dwelt on the expressions of support for Ihattaren. "That really gave me goose bumps," the coach said. "It was wonderful to see how supporters and players reacted. That says everything about how this selection interacts with each other and the support of our fans."