PSV Eindhoven made it nine straight league victories with a hard-fought 2-1 win at Excelsior.
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After last week’s last-gasp win over PEC Zwolle, PSV wanted to see off Excelsior quickly and they took the lead on 13 minutes when Jurgen Locadia’s cross was poked into his own net by Jurgen Mattheij.
PSV poured forward with Daniel Schwaab and Jurgen Locadia both hitting the bar with headers, while Nicolas Isimat-Mirin posted a contender for miss of the season as he nodded the ball over from two yards out.
Eventually, the second goal came on 41 minutes with Hirving Lozano spinning in the box and firing a deflected effort into the bottom corner for his tenth of the season.
Luuk de Jong had a goal disallowed early in the second half as PSV went looking for a third which would kill the game. However, on 52 minutes, Excelsior pulled one back when Stanley Elbers played in Ryan Koolwijk, who fired a low strike past Jeroen Zoet.
Two minutes later, Excelsior should have been level when Elbers found himself in on goal but the midfielder’s strike was brilliantly kept out by Zoet. The PSV defence was rattled by Excelsior but Zoet kept out an Ali Messaoud’s effort, while at the other end Locadia fired into the side netting and Marco van Ginkel hit the bar with a free-kick.
Isimat-Mirin netted in injury time last weekend and he nearly did it again this week, but this time Zoet stopped the defender from scoring an embarrassing own-goal with another fantastic save.
The victory keeps PSV eight points clear of Ajax at the top while Excelsior remains 11th.
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