PSV got off to an excellent start to the Eredivisie season on Saturday evening. Roger Schmidt decided to visit Heracles Almelo with a complete B line-up and that turned out to be anything but wrong. PSV hardly ran into problems and won convincingly, thanks to goals from Bruma and Noni Madueke: 0-2. The only blemish on the victory for the Eindhoven team was the failure of Armando Obispo in the second half.
PSV started the season overture with six other players compared to the won match in the preliminary round of the Champions League against FC Midtjylland (0-1). Olivier Boscagli was missing because he became a father, while Philipp Max had minor complaints. Marco van Ginkel will not play on artificial grass due to his injury history, while Joël Drommel, Mario Götze, Eran Zahavi and Cody Gakpo were also spared. Heracles had to do without first goalkeeper and captain Janis Blaswich, while defender Marco Rente and midfielder Ismail Azzaoui were also absent due to muscle injuries.
The opening phase was for Heracles, who made a first attempt with a bang from Bilal Basaçikoglu. PSV then got into the game better and Davy Pröpper tried from the edge of the penalty area, an attempt that was easily parried by Koen Bucker. The goalkeeper then had no answer to a passing movement by Madueke, who just failed to reach Yorbe Vertessen with his cross from the back line. Moments later, Madueke again threateningly crossed the line in the penalty area, but Mats Knoester cleared his pass at the last minute.
On the other side of the field, Yvon Mvogo had a bad reaction to Rai Vloet’s shot, but the PSV goalkeeper was lucky that Sinan Bakis was offside in the rebound. In the switch, the Eindhoven team struck six minutes before the break. Pröpper suddenly sent Bruma, who had plenty of space, towards Bucker. The PSV attacker scored by playing the ball through the legs of the Heracles keeper: 0-1. Shortly afterwards, Bruma saw a dangerous shot curl into the post from a distance.
PSV also performed strongly in the second half. That was rewarded after more than an hour of play with a hit for Madueke, who managed to free himself in the penalty area and shot low from the turn: 0-2. Immediately after the break, Götze came in for Mauro Júnior, and later in the second half Gakpo and Zahavi also came in. Ibrahim Sangaré, who had started in the starting line-up, should have pushed in the 0-3, but ran into Bucker. A shot by Zahavi was also tapped out of the corner by the goalie in the final phase.