PSV Eindhoven have a mountain to climb in the second leg of their Europa League tie with Olympiacos on Thursday. The kick off in Eindhoven is at 20.00.
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It has been a rough few weeks for Roger Schmidt, who has seen his side fall behind in the Eredivisie title race, and exit the KNVB Cup. Last week, PSV were defensively awful and fell to a shambolic 4-2 loss in Greece against Olympiacos.
PSV now need to turn it around in the second leg if they are to book their place in the last 16 of the competition.
Schmidt’s side go into the game on the back of a 3-1 win over Vitesse, which raised more questions about the German coaches selection choices. Schmidt rested a number of players and Vitesse took a 1-0 lead into half-time. Only after bringing on Donyell Malen and Mario Gotze, PSV turned the game around.
Opponents Olympiacos slipped to a 1-1 draw against Aris, but they remain 12 points clear at the top of the Greek Super league table.
Speaking to the press ahead of the game, Schmidt said, “We have to win by two goals and know what to expect from our opponent. We know we are able to achieve something special. We want to show tomorrow how motivated we are for this. We will fight for every meter and have to play a very strong game tactically. We can do it.”
Team News
Cody Gakpo remains injured and Olivier Boscagli is a doubt, but Mohammed Ihattaren could come back into the squad. A big blow for PSV is the loss of Ibrahim Sangare, who is suspended.
Schmidt may decide to start with Nick Viergever in place of Boscagli after Timo Baumgartl’s poor performance last week.
Schmidt tried a 5-3-2 formation against Vitesse, but is likely to go back to his preferred 4-2-2-2 for this game.
Possible PSV line-up: Mvogo, Dumfries, Max, Teze, Viergever, Rosario, Mauro, Thomas, Gotze, Zahavi, Malen
Ruben Semedo has returned from suspension for Olympiacos and could come back into the starting eleven. On-loan PSV winger Bruma will start for Olympiacos.
Possible Olympiacos line-up: Sa; Lala, Semedo, Ba, Reabciuk; M’Vila, Bouchalakis; Masouras, Camara, Bruma; El-Arabi
Odds
PSV 19/20 Draw 29/10 Olympiacos 5/2
Can PSV turn the game around?
PSV are more than capable of beating Olympiacos on Thursday but there are big issues defensively for Schmidt and the chances of them keeping a clean sheet seem slim.
Malen, Gotze, and Zahavi are capable of scoring the goals but PSV were horrific defensively in Greece last week and were lucky not to concede more than one against Vitesse this weekend.
This competition is realistically the only chance of a trophy for PSV and if they exit the Europa League on Thursday, the pressure increases even further on Schmidt, who is already causing anger among the support.
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