PSV’s line-up for the Conference League match against FC Copenhagen has been announced. Compared to Sunday’s game against Heracles Almelo (3-1 win), Roger Schmidt has added two new players: Armando Obispo and Cody Gakpo are in the starting line-up. As a result, Olivier Boscagli and Eran Zahavi disappear from the line-up; the defender is not part of the match selection due to illness. Former Ajax player Nicolai Boilesen is the captain of Copenhagen. The first meeting in the eighth finals starts at 9 p.m. in the Philips Stadium.
Obispo, back from injury, has his first base place since February 5 (against AZ in the Eredivisie). Gakpo was injured two and a half weeks ago against sc Heerenveen. He therefore missed the games against Maccabi Tel Aviv (Conference League), Sparta Rotterdam (Eredivisie) and Go Ahead Eagles (TOTO KNVB Cup). He made his comeback against Heracles as a substitute and scored. Gakpo’s return had to come at the cost of a starting player: Joey Veerman, Mario Götze and Zahavi were mentioned in the media as players who could lose their starting place.
“I think he is fit enough to start in the starting lineup,” Schmidt said of Gakpo at Wednesday’s press conference. “We will see if he is fit enough for 90 minutes. We have to see what the smartest way is for tomorrow, because we play another important game against FC Utrecht on Sunday. We will decide tomorrow what the best approach is for the game against Copenhagen. .”
At the press conference, the trainer also said that Mauro Júnior would ‘just’ be available. The back who was in good shape had minor complaints about the competition match against Heracles Almelo. He trained separately from the group during the last practice session. However, the race comes too early for Phillipp Mwene, André Ramalho, Richard Ledezma, Maximiliano Romero and Ryan Thomas.
PSV line-up: drum; Mauro Junior, Teze, Obispo, Max; Sangare, Gutierrez; Veerman, Gotze, Madueke; gakpo
Line-up FC Copenhagen: grabara; Kristiansen, Boilesen, Vavro, Ankersen; Stage, Teacher, Falk; Johannesson, Pep Biel, Boving