PSV Eindhoven struggled to a narrow 1-0 win over Austrian 2nd division side St Polten in their Europa league third play-off first leg tie.

  • By Michael Bell
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PSV DEJPSV were expected to blow their opponents away at the Philips Stadion, but will instead only take a narrow lead to Austria thanks to Luuk de Jong’s 2nd half header, on the strikers official debut.

The home side had plenty of the possession in the first half, but failed to create many clear cut chances. De Jong poked wide, before Marcel Ritzmaier saw two fierce efforts from outside the box fly just past the post. At the other end, Jeroen Zoet was called into action once to thwart a swift counter from St Polten.

On 55 minutes the opening goal finally came when Luciano Narsingh’s ball to the back post was met by Luuk de Jong, who had a simple header to open his account for PSV.

Jurgen Locadia missed a glorious opportunity to make it 2-0 before the end as the striker sent a free header over the bar from a corner.

In the final minute PSV were reduced to ten men when Florian Jozefzoon was shown his 2nd yellow card, both were for diving in the box. However the 2nd challenge looked like a penalty as the winger went flying over a trailing leg.

PSV travel to Austria next week, and will be boosted by the possible returns of Memphis Depay, Georginio Wijnaldum, and Santiago Arias. The Eredivisie side lack a bit of class in the attack tonight, and Depay especially could provide the spark needed to ease PSV to victory next week.




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