The moment of truth for PSV Eindhoven has arrived: the leader of the Dutch league hosts today (Sunday, 15:30 in Sport4) Ajax in the 20th round with a point advantage over the champion in the table, and Eran Zehavi opened on the bench of Roger Schmidt Hoping to further help his team open a gap in first place and thus take a significant step towards winning a first championship since 2018.
Zehavi returned to the pitches last Thursday and came on as a substitute in the 1: 2 victory over Telstar in the cup, after more than two months in which he did not play due to an injury that befell him in the Israeli national team uniform. The striker was not included in the 11th as he did not manage to return to ideal playing fitness, despite the injuries of his attacking teammates Carlos Vinicius, Maxi Romero and Noni Madwaka. On the other hand, 38-year-old Ramko Fassbir continues to be the replacement between the posts in the absence of Andre Onana who is in the African Championship with Cameroon and the injured Marten Stecklenburg. Brian Robbie opened the scoring in place of Sebastian Haller who is also in the African Championship, with the Ivory Coast team.
Both teams come into the game with excellent momentum: PSV holds a streak of six wins and as mentioned leads the table, while Ajax stands at five consecutive wins and knows that another one will bring it back to first place. As you may recall, at the start of the season Zehavi and his teammates won the local Supercup at the expense of the rival from Amsterdam, with a big 0: 4 win away, but their last visit to the Johan Cruyff Arena ended in a painful 5: 0 defeat.
the progress of the game
15 min: First dangerous attempt in the game. Joey Weirman, who joined PSV in the current transfer window from the Bernabein, threatened off the field but was stopped by Ramco Fassbir.
27th minute: Steven Brachhaus picked up a free kick from long range, neither player from either team touched and the ball went to the crossbar.
34 min: Goal! Brian Robbie, who had received treatment just minutes earlier, reached the level of Dusan Tadic and slammed into the net the Ajax 0-1. The striker was unable to continue and was immediately replaced.
41 min: Olivier Busquali pushed the leg after lifting the corner and kicked to the center of the goal, but Fassbir deflected PSV’s best chance so far.