PSV did itself a particularly good service on Saturday evening in the battle for second place in the Eredivisie. The team of trainer Ruud van Nistelrooij had little to fear from NEC and left the field in the Goffert stadium with a 2-4 victory. Luuk de Jong (twice), Olivier Boscagli and Joey Veerman were responsible for the goal production. Oussama Tannane did something beautiful in return on behalf of the home team twice. With the victory, PSV takes over second place from Ajax, which will play tomorrow.
For PSV, the past few days have been dominated by mourning, after press chief Thijs Slegers died at the age of 46 last Monday after an unfair battle against leukemia. At the initiative of the supporters of NEC, the enthusiastic clubman received a wonderful tribute in the twelfth minute, when hands joined hands for a minute. PSV was already 0-1 ahead at that time, after De Jong reacted attentively to a rebound from Xavi Simons. Jasper Cillessen had to release, after which the striker was able to score his seventh league goal of the season.
Olivier Boscagli emotional with goal after almost a year of injury ????
— ESPN NL (@ESPNnl) April 1, 2023
Among the visitors, there was a starting place for Boscagli for the first time in 356 days. The Frenchman was sidelined for almost a year with a lingering knee injury and graced his return with a goal when he was in the right place after a free kick from Veerman: 0-2. Until that moment, NEC had never been dangerous for Joël Drommel’s goal and could only watch how Van Nistelrooij’s team combined. It was thanks to Cillessen that the score did not rise well before. The the Dutch goalkeeper saved on bets by André Ramalho and Johan Bakayoko.
The final blow came five minutes before the break. After a razor-sharp switch, the ball came via Simons and De Jong to Veerman, who put the inside of his left foot against the ball and lifted the margin to three. The only time NEC became dangerous, Drommel was paying close attention. He parried a shot by Bart van Rooij in two instances. At the start of the second half, Van Nistelrooij brought in Jordan Teze for Phillipp Mwene and De Jong built the score to 0-4. The striker was able to moor after a smooth combination on the left between Simons and Patrick van Aanholt.
The best goal of the evening was yet to come and came in the name of Tannane. The technician, who otherwise looked quite frustrated, pulled in from the right to destroy in the short cross: 1-4. Van Nistelrooij then replaced Simons and Veerman for Thorgan Hazard and Ibrahim Sangaré and saw a goal by Bakayoko rejected. While the game then seemed to be heading for a big victory for PSV, Tannane made the score somewhat bearable with his second of the evening. Again he drove the ball into the top corner, this time from a free kick about twenty yards from goal.
| No. | Team | m | W | G | v | +/- | Pnt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Feyenoord | 26 | 18 | 7 | 1 | 34 | 61 |
| 2 | PSV | 27 | 17 | 5 | 5 | 38 | 56 |
| 3 | Ajax | 26 | 16 | 7 | 3 | 44 | 55 |
| 4 | AZ | 27 | 16 | 6 | 5 | 22 | 54 |
| 5 | FC Twente | 27 | 13 | 9 | 5 | 22 | 48 |
| 6 | Sparta Rotterdam | 26 | 13 | 7 | 6 | 14 | 46 |
| 7 | FC Utrecht | 26 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 1 | 38 |
| 8 | sc Heerenveen | 27 | 9 | 8 | 10 | -5 | 35 |
| 9 | NEC | 27 | 7 | 13 | 7 | 7 | 34 |
| 10 | RKC Waalwijk | 25 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 32 |
| 11 | Go Ahead Eagles | 25 | 7 | 8 | 10 | -8 | 29 |
| 12 | Fortuna Sittard | 26 | 8 | 5 | 13 | -14 | 29 |
| 13 | FC Volendam | 26 | 7 | 5 | 14 | -25 | 26 |
| 14 | Vitesse | 26 | 5 | 9 | 12 | -16 | 24 |
| 15 | FC Emmen | 27 | 5 | 9 | 13 | -21 | 24 |
| 16 | Excelsior | 27 | 7 | 3 | 17 | -36 | 24 |
| 17 | Fc Groningen | 26 | 4 | 5 | 17 | -27 | 17 |
| 18 | SC Cambuur | 27 | 4 | 4 | 19 | -30 | 16 |