Reigning Eredivisie champions, PSV Eindhoven secured the first silverware of the 2016/17 campaign with a narrow 1-0 victory over KNVB Beker winners, Feyenoord to lift the Johan Cruijff Schaal on Sunday 31st July at the Amsterdam ArenA reports Steven Davies.
An, at times, tempestuous first half began with Andres Guardado striking new signing Par Hansson’s crossbar with the Swedish stopper beaten after just five minutes and the reigning Eredivisie champions found plenty of joy from swift counter attacks throughout the first stanza.
Mexican international, Guardado edged ahead of his playmaking counterpart, Tonny Vilhena as Feyenoord were progressively forced to resort to long, hopeful balls into the PSV area as the half wore on.
It came as little surprise when, with 29 minutes on the clock and PSV enjoying the majority of possession, Jorrit Hendrix forced his way into the Feyenoord box and was brought down by El Ahmadi. Yet, despite 32 goals in all competitions last term, Luuk de Jong surprising sent his penalty attempt wayward – the ball shaving the bar on its way into orbit.
Tempers flared thereafter as an innocuous coming together between Isimat-Mirin and Toornstra resulted in handbags being thrown and yellow cards dished out to Toornstra and Jetro Willems respectively.
PSV were now well and truly in the ascendancy and minutes after a Pereiro shot had been screwed narrowly wide from a ball from the right a similar ball into the Feyenoord box saw an attempted clearance scuffed and Davy Propper flash a daisy cutter through a cluster of legs and into the far corner of Hansson’s net with the keeper rooted to the spot to give PSV a deserved 38th minute lead.
Cup winners, Feyenoord came out for the second half with purpose and, in a frenetic few minutes just after the restart, Vilhena drew a point blank save from PSV stopper, Jeroen Zoet before Toornstra fired over from close range.
Feyenoord chased the game throughout but looked increasingly unlikely to break PSV’s stranglehold on the game. New signing, Nicolai Jorgensen cut an increasingly frustrated figure up front, as did the rest of Feyenoord’s attacking trio and the Danish marksman was replaced by Michiel Kramer with a quarter of an hour left on the clock – their best opportunity falling to a defender, as a Botteghin header was cleared off the line after 57 minutes.
Despite having the majority of possession in the second period, Feyenoord found clean cut chances hard to come by and it was PSV who instead threatened to add to their lead: first, through Locadia who curled the ball just wide of Hansson’s left hand post after 54 minutes and then, with just a minute of normal time remaining, Jetro Willems was denied from point blank range by the Dane after being put through one-on-one with the keeper.
However, these missed opportunities did not come back to haunt the reigning Eredivisie champions who retained the Johan Cruijff Schaal for the second year in succession following their 3-0 victory over Groningen in the same fixture last season.
Man of the Match: Andres Guardado (PSV Eindhoven)
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