Thursday, April 7, 2022 at 10:50 PM• Jeroen van Poppel

PSV won a creditable draw in the King Power Stadium on Thursday evening. Roger Schmidt’s team turned out to be evenly matched in the first quarterfinal of the Conference League against Leicester City, which hit the bar itself via Harvey Barnes. PSV claimed a penalty themselves when the deservingly playing Cody Gakpo was overthrown. Referee Ivan Kruzliak, however, allowed the game to continue and a VAR is not yet present at this stage of the tournament: 0-0. The return will follow in the Philips Stadium in a week.

Yvon Mvogo made his comeback in PSV’s goal on Thursday evening. The Swiss had last stood in there a few months ago, when he was unable to seize a one-off chance against AZ. Furthermore, Cody Gakpo returned to the starting line-up and Joey Veerman took the place of the suspended Érick Gutiérrez, while the recovered André Ramalho took the place in the back of Jordan Teze. Noni Madueke was preferred to Ritsu Doan as a right winger. Jamie Vardy was still missing from Leicester due to a knee injury, which left Kelechi starting as a centre-forward.

PSV started the game strongly and immediately had a huge opportunity, when Veerman put the ball perfectly behind the defense and launched Mario Götze. The number 10 checked just in front of the goal and then fired at the quickly released Kasper Schmeichel. After that, the quality of the game of the Eindhoven players dropped quickly. Veerman lost the ball and Ramalho’s weak intervention launched Iheanacho, who chipped the ball just wide. At the end of the first half, Harvey Barnes fired from ten yards into the crossbar after a fine combination with Iheanacho.

In the second half, chances were even scarcer. The most striking moment for PSV offensively came in the 53rd minute, when Gakpo appeared to be knocked down by Ricardo Pereira as a dribble down the left flank. The PSV attacker claimed a penalty, but was not heard by the arbitration. Iheanacho tried from a distance after Veerman lost the ball, but shot a few meters wide. PSV made the wrong choice in a number of threatening attacks and thus no longer had a chance.