PSV’s aspirations of reaching the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 became a reality on Wednesday thanks to Ricardo Pepi.
Pepi came off the bench and scored a 92nd minute winner as PSV fought back to defeat Sevilla 3-2 away from home on Wednesday night. The result moved the Eredivisie leaders into second place in Group B, helping them clinch a Round of 16 spot with one match to spare.
Despite goals from Sergio Ramos and Youssef En-Nesyri, PSV fought back in the second half to get themselves back into the match.
Sergino Dest set up Ismael Saibari in the 68th minute to cut PSV’s deficit in half before a Nemanja Gudelj own goal 13 minutes later made it 2-2.
Pepi entered the match in the 83rd minute and needed just nine minutes to make a major impact. The 20-year-old got on the end of Yorbe Vertessen’s cross to head home PSV’s eventual winning goal of the match.
https://x.com/CBSSportsGolazo/status/1729949988237484210?s=20
Pepi now has five goals across all competitions this season, continuing to be an impactful player off the bench for Peter Bosz’s squad. Dest logged 90 minutes at left back while Malik Tillman played 32 minutes off the bench as well.
PSV will host group leaders Arsenal in its final group stage match on Dec. 12 but first travels to Feyenoord and hosts Heerenveen in league play.
What a goal. He starts the move with a flick out to Tiesen. Then makes a 45 yard Lungbbusting run with intelligent movement to offset his defender and slammed the ball home with his noggin. Reason he has been getting more minutes for PSV.
I like both Pepi and Balo. Both are going to scare the opposition.
I actually think they’d be better off finishing 3rd and could really make a run at the Europa League, rather than get pasted by one of the first place finishers.
why not the conference league then
Because third place in group stage goes to Europa League not Conference League. PSV apparently holds the tie breaker with Lens though so they are already through to CL knockouts. I guess on the bright side a quick exit will allow them to focus on Eredivisie title.
JR: i was making a smart aleck joke. but with a slight point, as in, are we factoring in the prestige and quality drop?
IV
“prestige and quality drop?”
Unlike high school, college or your select teams, these teams play for money. Serious money.
https://en.as.com/soccer/what-is-the-difference-in-prize-money-between-the-champions-league-and-europa-league-n-2/
’And the figures which show how much money clubs receive for reaching the different stages of the three UEFA competitions illustrate why:
Champions League Europa League Europa Conf.
Group stage €15.64m ($17.17m) €3.63m ($3.98m) €2.94m ($3.23m)
Round of 16 €9.6m ($10.54m) €1.2m ($1.32m) €600,000 ($658,530)
Quarter-finals €10.6m ($11.63m) €1.8m ($1.98m) €1m ($1.1m)
Semi-finals €12.5m ($13.72m) €2.8m ($3.07m) €2m ($2.2m)
Final €15.5m ($17.01m) €4.6m ($5.05m) €3m ($3.29m)
Winners €20m ($21.95m) €8.6m ($9.44m) €5m ($5.49m)
V: you’re only underlining my point which is there is more value in being a group round eliminated UCL team than fighting your way through one of the secondary or tertiary competitions. prestige, competition level, exposure, money. not that there’s anything wrong with dropping into a lower cup, if it’s where you end up. play the hand you’re dealt.
personally i find europa more interesting as an indicator of rising clubs with an arriving future. i think if you end up dumped down there you messed up.
to be clear, though, for leading clubs, it’s often financially huge that they consistently maintain group round status even if they bomb out or take europe less seriously that season. they need that UCL check as opposed to the others or nothing. to speak to JR’s argument, everything after that is financial gravy. and they may be taking it some degree of serious. though as i have previously said my experience is they tend to play a sort of “cup risk game” where they rotate in players and hope they can maintain results, until they reach some determined level where it becomes a first choice endeavor.
JR is giving them too much credit for purposefulness. it’s like USOC. every year some team or two takes it super serious. some just try and squeak by and conserve resources. others are content with the bonus check and what happens happens. sometimes big clubs getting cute sneak by. sometimes they are punished. JR misses the most important bit is staying high in league where the money train keeps going and they can try again next year in UCL.
“V: you’re only underlining my point which is there is more value in being a group round eliminated UCL team than fighting your way through one of the secondary or tertiary competitions. prestige, competition level, exposure, money. not that there’s anything wrong with dropping into a lower cup, if it’s where you end up. play the hand you’re dealt.”
That is not your point.
That’s my point. I made it it by showing y’all the figures.
The only thing you wrote before I presented the financials was in reference to “factoring in the prestige and quality drop?
That has nothing to do with money. Prestige and quality alone do not pay the bills.
I’m not sure why it says the round of 16 birth is sealed. First tiebreaker after total points is goal differential (per article 17.01), and then under (d) only if if goal difference and total goals scored remain the same do you then reapply exclusively to the matches between the remaining teams.
So when Dest throws a tantrum and sees red in the first half and Arsenal wins 3-0 and Lens beats Sevilla 2-0 at home, appears to me that Lens goes through.
I don’t know, UEFA official website has them as clinched. That’s all I was going by.
they are clinched, we updated the piece
Had time after work to look it up. #1 is results between the tied teams. So since PSV outscored Lens 2-1 in their two matches PSV already owns the first tiebreaker. (That might be different than previous years)
Pepi is a baller! He is a striker in the mold of Lewandowski and his game is developing nicely.
Now, if the USMNT can get him quality service in the box with any level of consistency, we might see more of this from him when playing with the nats.
I actually think Pepi is more of a fit as a starter for the USMNT because of his skillet, he proved that during wcq, and when I say skillset I mean his uncanny ability to get on the end of crosses especially with his heading ability ala the Sevilla game, and the ability to peel.off of the defenders shoulder to set himself up for those chances. Balogun I think has more upside and has played better at a higher level at club, but Pepi has at least earned the right to get more starts for the Nats imo
It’s interesting how it’s always one or the other with USMNT fans.
They always have to run down one player to elevate the other.
Flo and Pepi are basically two different types of strikers.
And the fans should be thankful to have either of them let alone both.
Their problem is that they have to play for the USMNT which is not good enough to give either one the kind of service that would show them to their best advantage.
i would favor balogun over pepi based on he’s scored and assisted on teams like canada and germany. i think both have done well on the scoreboard despite being un-integrated in the offense overall. you think about it like they never get the ball then you see they have a G or A about every other game. which as y’all are saying suggests we have even more untapped upside. if they can get involved in a goal every other game in this disorganized slop where we can barely find them, imagine if this was functional. to me the general disorganization plus running out just these two over and over reeks “roll out the ball” coaching. it’s like “i don’t understand how this works so i will just run out 2 of the more prolific, big hype scorers and just let them try and make something work.” and they kind of do somewhat, in spite of the game plans being crud. this is why i harp on the coaching this much. we have accomplished this much dragging around an anchor. imagine if this actually worked and we got the 9 integrated.
“it’s like “i don’t understand how this works so i will just run out 2 of the more prolific, big hype scorers and just let them try and make something work.” and they kind of do somewhat, in spite of the game plans being crud.”
IV,
You don’t know what you are talking about.
I could be wrong but the TNT game was the first time Flo and Pepi started together and it was interesting how Flo dropped deeper which is what you’d expect with a big/ little striker pair.
Trying it out vs TNT made sense given that we had a 4-0 aggregate lead over them and they suck.
I doubt anyone expected the red card but keeping Flo and Pepi on for a bit after the red was a reasonable gamble. It gave the USMNT a chance to steal another goal.
One more US goal would have made the aggregate score 6-2.
TNT would have had to beat the USMNT 6-2 just to draw even.
TNT scored their second goal with thirty three minutes left.
That is not a lot of time to score three goals let alone four. Especially when you suck. Maybe you think TNT is Man City in disguise but they are not.
V: sorry but when you’re defending how that lousy pair of games went, reality speaks for me. it took 70′ to score on a team we’d averaged 6 against. we managed 4 total goals in 2 games on a team we’d averaged 6 against. i don’t know what you’re talking about counter-factual 6-2. it ended 4-2 with us clutching worry beads because they were getting chances and the 2 man frontline you’re promoting had zero effect once we got the red. if anything it made it harder to defend.
common sense in that situation is either completely park the bus or play a speed counter game. we are up 4-0. you do not risk an opposing goal deluge to chase 5 and 6. if you attack it’s highly disciplined, limited numbers quickly forward, then get right back.
V: fwiw through the red TnT had played 129′ of nations league soccer against us without a goal. had played 452′ of no-goals soccer with us since the first half goals in the 2017 game. you park the bus. period.
IV,
“V: sorry but when you’re defending how that lousy pair of games went, reality speaks for me. it took 70′ to score on a team we’d averaged 6 against. we managed 4 total goals in 2 games on a team we’d averaged 6 against. i don’t know what you’re talking about counter-factual 6-2. it ended 4-2 with us clutching worry beads because they were getting chances and the 2 man frontline you’re promoting had zero effect once we got the red. if anything it made it harder to defend.
common sense in that situation is either completely park the bus or play a speed counter game. we are up 4-0. you do not risk an opposing goal deluge to chase 5 and 6. if you attack it’s highly disciplined, limited numbers quickly forward, then get right back.
V: fwiw through the red TnT had played 129′ of nations league soccer against us without a goal. had played 452′ of no-goals soccer with us since the first half goals in the 2017 game. you park the bus. period.”
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
You and “reality” have a flexible relationship.
You think I’m defending how the USMNT played. That’s not correct.
I don’t care how they played because it doesn’t matter how they played.
They could have played like Brazil at their best and won both games 10-0.
Or they could have done what they did.
It’s irrelevant; they advanced ( which has next to nothing to do with how they “played” ) and that is all that matters.
I long ago gave up the idea that the USMNT would ever be an “beautiful game “team, one that would be a thrill to watch and use their tactical brilliance to lay waste to all before them.
I’m not saying it is impossible.
I’m saying that the USSF doesn’t know how to make it happen or more likely doesn’t really care. This team gets just enough results to keep the fan base happy so why should the USSF kill themselves? They are going to keep feeding us this line that so many world class kids will keep showing up that it will be impossible to NOT win the World Cup. This is the ultimate settle-for team and fan base.
In many of the big soccer countries massive public unrest would have followed Gregg’s rehiring. You would have had human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!.
Here, with the USMNT you get people making bullshit excuses ( the job is just so hard”,the Reynas were just so mean to him) for why Gregg’s half ass work is good enough. And after all Gregg has a nice locker room full of nice non diva shitbags, most of them speaking with appropriately American accents, “
66 games and one World Cup in, it’s pretty clear what we can expect from this manager and this group.
This team and this manager spend the vast majority of their time prepping to play teams like TNT. Which is to say garbage teams. In other words, they are soft. Why are you surprised that they approach a game like this over confident and arrogant and occasionally pay for it? It has been that way for most of Gregg’s reign.
If CONCACAF were a League, then the USMNT and Mexico are Celtic and Rangers. Ever notice how far Celtic and Rangers get when they play tougher teams in the Champions League? Oh I forgot club form means nothing to you.
Since Gregg was gifted this team, as I’ve long said, they have never beaten a so called “better” team in game where it mattered.
You’re criticizing this team as if they were a Man City that was somehow failing to live up to their potential. This team doesn’t have the players or any plan other than to wait for certain players to get healthy and/or achieve an uptick in their form. Gregg’s hoping this all comes to a head just before Copa America. Then they can assemble their best guys, show up and what happens, happens.
You just wasted a ton of everyone’s time trying to show us what a smarty-pants analyst you really are.
You’re not just beating a dead horse, you’re beating a horsemeat sandwich.
No analysis is needed. These guys have shown you their “identity”. They are petty bullies. Good at taking lunch money from little CONCACAF kids unless the little kids actually stand up to them. Then it gets dicey. And when the big new kids show up they don’t know what to do.
So beat up some more crap teams (or not) and enjoy what is likely to be your Nations League title. It just might be pretty grim for a while after that.
Nice.
Cool to see Dest and Tillman there to congratulate him. Definite sign things are a-changin’ if ever there was one…and I think the average age was, what? 22?
Love. This. Kid.