(Translated by Thomas Snaith)
The UCL game between PSV and FCB is a fixture between the two second placed teams of the Dutch and Swiss domestic leagues. The Dutch league however was much tighter than the Swiss: At the end of last season PSV were only 3 points behind the Champions League Semi-Finalists Ajax Amsterdam. This says a lot about the quality of Marc van Bommel´s team. Even though PSV sold several key players such as captain Luuk de Jong, Basel coach Marcel Koller still sees PSV as favorites.
PSV has a lot of quality in their team. If you check out last season´s resluts, the dutch side are favorites.
As the Dutch Eredivisie only starts at the beginning of August its somewhat difficult to judge the current state of van Bommel´s team. Koller needs to make his opinion based on Eindhoven´s friendly games. The results varied: A clear victory against Vitesse Arnhem who FCB played last year, a goalless draw against FC Sion and a recent loss against VfL Wolfsburg.
PSV score an average of nearly 3.5 goals per game
Basel kick-started their season against Sion last Friday, winning 4:1. This result provided a snapshot of FCB´s current form and confirms FCB´s hard work during pre-season preparation. Even though the season started on a positive, Marcel Koller stresses that his team needs to improve in order to achieve a positive result on Tuesday.
It looks like it´s going to be a difficult fixture. Last season PSV won all of their home games apart from one, scoring an average of nearly 3.5 goals per game.
Maybe it´s a small advantage that we can celebrate a recent success. We cannot put too much weight on this victory and must improve our game in order to achieve a positive result in Eindhoven.
Apart from FC Basel 1893´s positive start to the season, another motivator for FCB is their track record against Dutch teams: A year ago FCB beat Vitesse Arnhem twice (1:0). FCB played Feyenoord twice, in two separate UEFA-Cup group stage fixtures, beating them in 2004 and a draw in 2006 (securing qualification for the next round). UI-Cup against SC Heerenveen; two victories in 2001. Basel lost to Feyenoord, in the UEFA cup in 2000.
Dutch Club Football is back in full strength
Since the year 2000 there haven’t been any further fixture against Dutch clubs, even though FCB played the majority of their European fixtures during this period of time. Maybe this is due to the fact that Dutch football wasn’t at it best for the past 20 years. This has evidently changed since last season, therefore FCB need to be cautious when facing last season´s 2nd placed team of the Dutch Eredivisie. FCB will tackle this challenge after a positive start to the season and with lots of self-confidence. FCB won’t be able to count on the following players: Zdravko Kuzmanovic and Tician Tushi are both injured and Julian von Moos is ill.
