Ridiculous game management from Alonso.
It was inevitable that with Fernando and Rakitic we would be overrun in midfield once we went down to 10 and lost Ocampos in 57th min, and yet the first change he makes is Jordan for Sow in 73rd minute?
That b*stard Vertessen totally bought the free kick and second yellow for Ocampos whose studs got caught in the ground when he was running to challenge him and the momentum naturally made Ocampos fall towards the bastard. There was nothing he could do to stop that fall. He probably should not have been so determined to tackle the guy when he was on a booking but he was really up for this game tonight and wanted to try help the team defensively too there.
The ref just fell for it and could not wait to show Ocampos second yellow.
The second yellows should definitely be reviewed by VAR too, and apparently may be soon.
Only made it to watch the highlights, extremely disappointing but somewhat expected. The way we give everything away all the time is just exemplary for our state as a club. In different times weād survive those. Some type of shaky insecure energy that the club is emitting into its people.
3rd place miraculously is still ours for the taking, so we could get back to where we belongā¦ EL. If we donāt make that one. Alonso will hear the knife falling down I think.
The attacking play in the first 60 mins seemed promising, however it was against a Dutch team coached by Peter Bosz, so having chances against them is almost a givenā¦
With that said, with one or two of those chances going in (YENās header off the bar or Sowās handball) we could be looking at a different perspective on the match. Football can be cruel and sadly that second goal for PSV went in when youād expect it not to 99 out of 100 times. The defense was again a bit of a shambles for the goals. I only caught about 20 minutes of the game when I was on my break, so again I can only base these opinions on the match highlights.
Ocampos doesnāt get that red and we win I reckon. Game really did turn on that moment. To compound it, PSV then score a cracker of a first goal not long after. You then just knew that theyād get back into it and no surprises they did with a rather unlucky goal to concede on our part. There was then only going to be one winner as it proved.
The red card was harsh but then Ocampos only has himself to blame with the silly yellow and then to go in like he did, he was asking for trouble. As good a player as he is, he does let himself down with his petulance at times Iām afraid. We as a team let ourselves down in terms of our discipline. Iāve lost count of how many red cards weāve had in the last year or so. There were two against La Real on Sunday and itās not the first time weāve been down to nine men either. I seem to remember a home match against Athletic not that long ago! We really need to work on this. Anyway we can throw away a lead we manage to do it. Simply we donāt know how to win a football match right now.
Who knows, it may have been different without Sowās handball for the goal or YEN being unlucky to hit the bar with the header, but the fact is we lost and handed it on a plate to PSV so we only have ourselves to blame. We are just not good enough at Champions League level right now and may not be in it again for a while. The groups over the last few years havenāt exactly been āgroups of deathā but weāve still failed which tells you everything.
All we can do now is hope we can win away at Lens and get into the EL again, try and put together some form in the league and maybe have a Copa run.
