Tuesday’s thrilling UEFA Champions League qualifier came from Ibrox Stadium as Dutch giants PSV left Glasgow with a 2-2 first leg draw against Rangers.
U.S. men’s national team fullback Sergino Dest made his PSV debut in the result, logging 80 minutes at left back for Peter Bosz’s squad. Dest delivered a strong performance in the match, while fellow Americans Malik Tillman and Ricardo Pepi were unused substitutes.
Abdallah Sima’s opening goal came for Rangers on the verge of halftime, but Ibrahim Sangare’s confident strike in the 61st minute tied things up 1-1.
Rabbi Matondo’s curling finish in the 76th minute boosted Rangers back in front with 15+ minutes left to play. However, Luuk De Jong’s flicked header off a PSV corner kick gave the Eredivisie club a reasonable 2-2 draw heading back to Eindhoven for next week’s second leg.
Dest won eight of his 11 duels, completed a match-high five dribbles, and made seven recoveries from his left back position. The 22-year-old arrived on loan from Barcelona on Monday and jumped right into the squad on Tuesday night.
He will now prepare for Aug. 30th’s second leg from the Philips Stadion with PSV seeking a return to the UCL group stage this September.
PSV is off from league play this weekend, which will give Bosz and his players added time to prepare.
If not being able to get by Ciafuentes (formerly of LAFC) on any of their three duals is a good outing maybe we all had over rated Dest. Then again Dest is a defender, right? I guess I wasn’t so impressed by him. He had moments but this is guy who was supposed to be fighting for a starting spot on Barcelona dropping down to the 6th or 7th ranked league in Europe playing against a Scottish team. I guess it’s been more than a year since he’s played regularly but still…
The best statement about Dest – “Second day at the club!!!”…..Love it
Hopefully this is a sign that Dest just needed the right team and a chance to play. Maybe I’m naive, but I have thought he looks pretty good when playing for the US.
Could be a long season for both Pepi and Tillman. I hope they start to get minutes and some starts with some regularity as the season progresses.
Pepi was brought in as an understudy for Luuk De Long. Luuk is 33 and had some injuries last year. PSV’s plan was to use Luuk as the primary CF this season and Pepi to challenge or take over next season. Minutes for Pepi may be hard to come buy this season, but in the long run I expect this to be good for his development.
Tillman was late to join PSV on loan. He should see minutes during league games, but I don’t see him starting much during the first quarter/half of the season.
Dest having played in Holland previously and having played at a higher level (Barca) was able to hit the ground running….which was good to see. Now just need him to become consistent week after week.
I don’t think they’re going to be able to hold either guy off for long. PSV spent €36 million last year but that was with their top four guys Thorgan Hazard, Fabio Silva, Ki-Jana Hoever, and Ibrahim Sangare making €20 million between the four of them…this year all but Sangare are gone and Sergino Dest – at just €3 million (which is odd, he was making €6 million last year for Barca) is their top earner.
PSV’s payroll this year is about where it’s been the last several years excepting last season…about €21 million. Which is actually somewhat less than Rangers (who they obviously just tied 2-2 yesterday) are spending…actually Rangers’ payroll this year is £23 million, which translates to €27 million.
Tillman didn’t just start for Rangers last year, he was one of the best players on the team. So there is almost zero chance, IMHO – none – that he’s not one of the best three mids on PSV and certainly no way he’s not one of the best 11. He’s going to play, a lot. I actually just looked at some film of the three mids who appear to be ahead of Tillman this second, Guus Til, Joey Veerman, and Ismael Saibari. Til’s pretty durn good, actually, but he’s been a perpetual gypsy and hasn’t stayed anywhere for a full year except Spartak Moscow (where he kept having loan spells), Veerman’s a deep-lying technician who likes to dink and dunk over the top and put nifty through-balls in, and Saibari’s Just A Guy…a big-bodied strong dribbler who can’t score a goal to save his own life and isn’t remotely in Tillman’s league in terms of talent. The one who’s probably most in Tillman’s way is Guus Til and if past is prologue Til will be gone no later than January.
Pepi being behind Luuk de Jong might be frustrating for the moment, but de Jong is almost 33, he has a history of injuries, and PSV has a lot of matches coming up between the Eredivisie and Champions/Europa league. They’re likely going to have to play Pepi a good bit too.
It would have been a hard ask to give Malick his first minutes of the season on the road at his old club in a CL qualifier.
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Pepi is going to sit a lot unless DeJong gets injured. They’ve been playing 2 matches each week for the last three weeks and he has 75 minutes. Maybe Earnie will remind his manager that he’s got a reasonably expensive for PSV forward sitting on the bench perhaps we should rotate a little to save our 33 yr old striker.
“Maybe Earnie will remind his manager that he’s got a reasonably expensive for PSV forward sitting on the bench perhaps we should rotate a little to save our 33 yr old striker.”
33 isn’t that old. If Pepi is that certain to develop, then you might as well use him up and get as much out of DeJong as you can.
You could liken it to Sargent/ Pukki. Josh did not just come in and kick Pukki off the field.
And by the way, I think DeJong is the captain. Pepi can learn a lot from DeJong, if he pays attention.