PSV Eindhoven vs Eindhoven

Cross-city rivals PSV Eindhoven and Eindhoven meet each other at Philips Stadio in a summer friendly.

PSV Eindhoven’s poor pre-season start that saw them go down 2-1 to St Truiden in their first summer friendly is now well behind them as back-to-back 2-1 wins over Augsburg and BW Linz helped the Dutch heavyweights get back on track. Interestingly, both those victories saw both sides score before halftime, highlighting the potential for an action-packed first half. But new manager Peter Bosz is seemingly unable to address PSV’s defensive woes as they’ve failed to keep a clean sheet across their last six matches. That narrative may change here, considering the ‘Peasants’ have won four of their last five friendlies against Eindhoven by 3+ goals ‘to nil,’ barring a shock 1-0 loss in 2016.

Unlike PSV, Eindhoven’s pre-season is going from bad to worse. After sharing the spoils with Sittard in a 1-1 draw at the start of their summer preparations, they’ve lost two straight exhibition matches against Lierse and Willem II by an aggregate score of 7-1, conceding 2+ first-half goals on both occasions. Unless manager Rob Penders finds a winning formula soon, Eindhoven’s hopes of bettering last season’s 8th-place finish in the Eerste Divisie are as good as dead. Adding to this sentiment, ‘Blauw-Witten’ have only won once in their seven most recent matches (D2, L4), never scoring more than once in this sequence. Given their abovementioned H2H form against PSV, this isn’t a place to rediscover their scoring touch.