It took the luck of a penalty shootout to seal PSV Eindhoven’s exit from the Champions League Round of 16 last season, after the Dutch champions impressively topped Premier League giants Manchester United to secure their place in the knockout rounds.
After claiming their second consecutive Eredivisie title back in May, many expected the club to push on this season, both in the league and in Europe. However, Tuesday’s game against Champions League newbies FC Rostov turned the club’s season on its head.
The club were unfortunate enough to be drawn in a group containing two of the tournament’s most successful sides in recent years, Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich and La Liga front-runners Atletico Madrid. It was always going to be a big ask for the club to make it through to the knockout rounds, yet, competing for third place Rostov, a place in the Europa League surely beckoned.
However, after failing to overcome Rostov back in September, a victory against the Russian club at home in their final group game was vital. One goal would have secured a third place finish, yet they were unable to produce the winning goal.
A 0-0 draw means that they are now out of European competition altogether this season and are in real danger of finishing the season without any silverware. They have already been dumped out of the KNVB Cup following a disappointing 3-1 defeat to Sparta Rotterdam and have fallen six points behind title rivals Feyenoord and Ajax in the league table. Their disappointing Champions League exit will have knocked their confidence and with a tough visit from Ajax coming up, the points gap could soon be extended to nine.
Conceding defeat to their rivals will hurt. However, the results of such a poor season will be much more than the loss of bragging rights or a knock to the squad’s morale.
In a league with little commercial pull outside of the Netherlands, prize money, or the loss of it, can have big implications of a team’s financial power. Should PSV fail to recover in the title race, not only will they lose out on the money generated by winning the league, but they will also fail to receive the Champions League cheque that has undoubtedly bolstered their bank account in recent seasons and helped them to keep up their winning ways.
Worse yet, AZ Alkmaar and Ajax have secured their places in the knockout rounds of the Europa League, which will only strengthen their financial positions ahead of the 2016/17 campaign as their runs in Europe go on. Eindhoven, on the other hand, will have little to play with over the summer.
Changes need to be made if PSV are to avoid falling behind their rivals. They are still in the race for the Eredivisie title, yet they are struggling to produce winning displays at times, which will only see the gap increase as the season goes on. The Rostov result came as a shock, yet they have produced similar results against the likes of FC Groningen, Willem II and Roda JC, all of which they should have beaten comfortable.
There is still time for PSV to turn their season around, and with the Eredivisie the only front left for Phillip Cocu’s side left to fight on, he will be hoping that the increased periods of rest will help to improve results. Yet, with their season slowly falling apart, it seems that PSV’s recent dominance of Dutch football is coming to an end.