Roger Schmidt sees that PSV has a clear disadvantage compared to opponent Ajax in the run-up to the cup final, which is scheduled for next Sunday at 6 p.m. Where the team from Amsterdam has eight days of rest before the final battle in the TOTO KNVB cup, the selection of the German only has two days of rest. Despite the big difference, the PSV trainer does not want to complain.
“Well, what’s your take on it? No, we won’t complain,” Schmidt replied after pointing out the difference in preparation. “A cup final is very big, one of the biggest games of a season. You hope that the conditions are the same for both teams, but you know that one club is at a disadvantage when you look at the schedule. I am used to my period with Germany that the cup final is the highlight of the season after the competition.”
PSV only has two days of preparation after it failed to advance in the Conference League on Thursday evening. In their own Philips Stadium, the Eindhoven team lost 1-2 against Leicester City after a disastrous last fifteen minutes. Eran Zahavi had given PSV the lead in the first half, but Leicester struck twice in the latter part of the game via James Maddison and Ricardo Pereira.
Schmidt didn’t blame his players for not being able to get the win over the line. “My players have delivered a fantastic performance. We played well and with patience, and we could have won,” said Schmidt at the press conference shortly after the game in the Philips Stadium. “Leicester have a top team. You can’t create chances against them for a whole game and you know they will eventually get opportunities. It was up to us to keep them from scoring and we didn’t succeed. The circumstances were also not such that we could force anything with substitutions”, the coach concluded his analysis.
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