There is no doubt which was the best team of the Eredivisie this season. Dominator from start to finish, the PSV Eindhoven of the Chucky Lozano obtained his twenty-fifth title this Sunday of this competition, with a 4-2 comeback against Sparta Rotterdam that makes them unreachable for second place in the general table, the Feyenoordwhere he plays Santiago Gimenez.
The championship of the team of the Mexican Hirving Lozano, the Argentine Walter Benítez or the Brazilians Mauro Júnior and Andre Ramalho was a matter of time. Nobody doubted that they would succeed. Their nine points with three games left to play since last day they crowned him as virtual winnerin the absence of the match that awaited him this Sunday at the Philips stadium, in front of his fans, with unpredictable agitation on the pitch, especially at the beginning.
The match against Sparta Rotterdam
Perhaps because of the size of the reward, PSV felt nervous. The best example was goalkeeper Walter Benítez, a sure thing all season, unrecognizable this Saturday in the first moments, like his team in general, who conceded the 0-1 in the 8th minute with a right hand from Metinho. There were more occasions, amidst the murmur of the incredulous public.
Even more so in the case that his team seemed to have nothing to do with the rest of the campaign, until Luuk de Jong headed the first shot already in the 18th minute. The subsequent corner kick was 1-1, when he hit the Schouten’s chest and Bakari was unable to clear it. In fact, the Eredivisie awarded it to the defender at his own goal. A relief. The 1-1.
Eight minutes later, PSV scored 2-1. The play was phenomenal by Luuk de Jong, who gave the goal to Bakayoko. His fifteenth assist of this league campaign. The attacker who played for Sevilla and Barcelona has also scored 27 goals. For his teammate it was his twelfth goal, also transcendent in the champion led by Peter Bosz.
With the match returned to the most predictable place, Sparta still reopened the debate on the result before half an hour into the match, when Saito launched a thread that Boscagli tried to clear with his head and which ended up in the corner of his goal. The 2-2. It was still valid for PSV to seal the final victory, but it was a blur on such a special morning.
The game slowed down after the restart. More balanced, more contained, less fiery in attack, the meeting passed without relevant concerns for either of them. Neither for PSV, nor for Sparta, who lost Neghli due to injury before duel time, until the strategy put the leader and champion back in the lead, already in the 67th minute (3-2).
11 minutes later, in a devastating counterattack, Jordan Teze finished the game, after an assist from Ricardo Pepi that left him with an advantage over the defenders, the Dutch defender only had to drive the ball with speed and push to the back of the goal. It was the goal that signed the title.
The numbers that PSV left in the season
PSV Eindhoven’s championship was driven by an impressive record of 17 consecutive victories with which the campaign began, led by the 27 goals and 15 assists from striker Luuk de Jong and unattainable by a distance of 87 points achieved out of 96 played so far, that is, They only let go 9 units in 32 games.
In its impeccable run through the Dutch league this season, the 1987-88 European champion has been invincible on its territory, with 15 wins and one draw (the only one to achieve a point was Feyenoord, second, with a 2- 2); He has surpassed 100 goals scored (107) and has had Luuk de Jong, who has scored 27 goals in the 32 games played.
The forward who played for Sevilla and Barcelona has also given 15 assists. At 33 years old, counting all competitions, he has participated in 54 goals in 46 games this year; 36 as a finisher and 18 as a passer. An incredible season for the forward, transferred from Sevilla in the summer of 2022 for three million euros.
It is his best scoring season. The previous ones, also with PSV, had reached 32 goals in 2015-16 and 2018-19, before his signing for the Seville club.
It is not only Luuk de Jong’s league. It is also that of Argentine goalkeeper Walter Benítez, who has conceded only 19 goals in 32 games. He finished 18 of those duels with a clean sheet, a credit to him and the PSV defense. Or Guus Til, with 10 goals; Mark Tilman, with nine goals and 10 assists; Joey Veerman, with 14 assists and five goals; or the young Johan Bakayoko, who has scored 12 goals and scored another nine in this ‘Eredivisie’ and, of course, the Mexican Hirving Lozano, who we will talk about later.
His team invested 51.5 million euros during the summer period to reinforce its squad, of which it sold for 47.4 million euros. He lost Xavi Simons, brilliant at PSV (22 goals and 11 assists in 2022-23), bought back by Paris Saint Germain last summer and now at Leipzig. He also sold Ibrahima Sangaré, for 35 million to Nottinhgam Forest of the powerful English ‘Premier’. And Erick Gutiérrez returned to Mexico.
Among his 12 signings for his new project he included Marc Tillman, on loan from Bayern Munich in exchange for one million euros; Hirving Lozano, Noa Lang or Sergiño Dest (now out due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament), apart from Ricardo Pepi in the winter market from Augsburg, to increase the possibilities of an intractable team this campaign in the Netherlands league . In the Cup, they were eliminated in the round of 16 by Feyenoord, whom they beat in the Super Cup and the ‘Eredivisie’. The twenty-fifth in its history.
Chucky Lozano’s role in the championship
Although in this Sunday’s game Hirving Lozano came on as a substitute in the 58th minute and could not contribute much to his team in the victory, his role throughout the campaign has been important, since 9 of his team’s goals passed for his boots in the last and penultimate play.
The Mexican winger, signed last summer to Naples, He has contributed six goals and three assists to PSV Eindhoven’s success, second last year and champion now under the command of Peter Bosz, the 60-year-old coach who previously coached Lyon, Leverkusen, Dortmund, Ajax, Vitesse and Heracles. One year and two titles, because PSV also won the Dutch Super Cup in the summer.
It is true that the Mexican did not show his best version and that his return to the club that saw him stand out in Europe was not what his fans expected.
At the beginning of the campaign, Chucky shined, even He scored a hat-trick in an important match, against Ajax, But then he went through a negative streak that he is still trying to get out of. This malaria prevented him from scoring for five months from November 2023 and made him lose his starting position.
Despite this, Lozano has the trust of his coach, who knows him and knows that at any moment he will recover his best level.
“I cannot agree with the criticism that he would worry about himself and look for his own opportunity. I work with that guy and know him at all. In fact, it is a quality of his that at certain times he looks for his own opportunity. He adapts perfectly to the team and is sociable,” said his coach Peter Bosz a few days ago.
Keep reading:
Chucky Lozano caresses for the Eredivisie title, what does he need to be champion?
Will Chucky Lozano return to Mexico? The PSV forward spoke about his priorities
Chucky Lozano scored a hat-trick, shone and was key in PSV’s historic win over Ajax