It was a rough return to the UEFA Champions League group stage for Sergino Dest and PSV on Wednesday as the Eredivisie club suffered a forgettable night in London.
Dest logged 90 minutes at left back, but PSV fell 4-0 to Arsenal in Group B play. The U.S. men’s national team fullback, along with the PSV backline, struggled to deal with the Gunners attack, which featured goals from Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Leandro Trossard, and Martin Odegaard.
Saka needed only eight minutes to boost Mikel Arteta’s squad in front at the Emirates Stadium, pouncing on a rebound in the PSV box and slotting home.
Saka connected with Trossard on Arsenal’s second goal of the first half, teeing up the Belgian at the top of the PSV box. Trossard made no mistake by blasting past Walter Benitez for a 2-0 Arsenal lead.
Jesus extended Arsenal’s lead to 3-0 in the 38th minute, possessing a cross from Trossard before delivering an impressive finish for his second goal of the season.
Odegaard added Arsenal’s fourth and final goal of the match in the 70th minute, picking up a pass from Reiss Nelson before rifling home a confident finish.
Dest won six of nine duels, completed four dribbles, and made one tackle in the match. Fellow USMNT teammate Malik Tillman played 24 minutes off the bench while Ricardo Pepi was a stoppage-time substitution by Peter Bosz.
PSV will return to Eredivisie action on Saturday with a trip to Almere City.
Most impressive USMNT player this CL was Musah.
Tillman got in at the 66th minute. Pepi got in, but with only three minutes in extra time left to play.
Still, it’s Champions League. Away matches at places like Emirates Stadium against teams like Arsenal are exactly how good young players develop into top-level players…they take their shellackings, they learn from them, and they improve. If there’s any other way to do it I’ve never seen it.
Actually I thought Dest was decent.
Dest (and the PSV CB) watched the ball as Saka breezed right by him to put the rebound in for Arsenal’s first goal. I’m not sure if after Saka passed to Troussard if Dest was passing Saka off to the CB but he just let him continue his run toward the goal. It could have easily been a one two between Saka and Trossard. Saka was unmarked after his lay off. As the shot was taken both Dest and the CB stopped and watched the ball while Saka kept playing and found himself alone in front of the goal for the easy tap in of the rebound. At worst the goal was Dest’s fault at best it was poor communication between him and the CB. How do you let Saka just run free in the box and double team Haevertz?
first, before i even read the article, when i saw PSV starting him left i was like, wow, that’s crazed.
second, he got abused by saka the whole first half including both goals 1 and 2. to me he doesn’t have a defender’s awareness or instincts. like saka on goal 1 just continues his path across the defense after the pass and he quits tracking — in the most dangerous place. rebound, goal. goal 2 saka does a similar cut-in and dest doesn’t cut it off either. so he’s not learning.
he’s obviously a soccer player. he’s playing the wrong position.
IV,
Saka makes a lot of players look like they are playing the wrong position.