Carlos Vinicius gave the home team the lead with a penalty in the 45th minute shortly before the break. Defensively, the Austrians had solved the task well by then. In the second half, the loss of substance after several CoV infections in the team recently had an impact in the storm. Bruma (55th) scored to make it 2-0.
In the table, Sturm holds the bottom of the group – the 1: 1 at Real Sociedad was the only success so far – still at one point. The Spaniards in third place can no longer be reached with six points on their account. In the lead are AS Monaco (11 points), who prevailed 2-1 (2-1) in the parallel game in Group B against Real Sociedad, ahead of Eindhoven (8). At the end of the day, it’s all about the honor for Sturm when Monaco visits Graz on December 9th.
Sturm is subject to Eindhoven
With the 2-0 defeat against PSV Eindhoven, Sturm Graz was eliminated from the European Cup. The Styrians could only get one point in total and are thus the bottom of the table in their group.
Ilzer with a system that has rarely been rolled out
The top Dutch team lacked numerous top performers that evening – Eran Sahavi, Cody Gakpo and Philipp Max were just three of them. The Viennese Philipp Mwene played through as a right-back in the Philips Stadium, which was empty due to CoV measures. In a 4-3-2-1 system rarely rolled out by coach Christian Ilzer, the Graz-based team initially relied on standing securely in the rear third and making the spaces narrow.
This tactic succeeded as PSV missed a shot on goal except for a poor finish from Carlos Vinicius in the 35th minute. In the 40th minute, Bruma missed playing Vinicius in the center of the penalty area – that could have been dangerous. Just under a minute before the break, the Brazilian scored his goal: Jörg Siebenhandl put ex-world champion Mario Götze in the penalty area after a Affengruber mistake, and the goalkeeper could not fend off Vinicius’s flat penalty, although it was his turn .
Sturm with manageable offensive ambitions
Even after the break, the offensive ambitions of the Styrians were initially manageable, after Mwene flank, however, Götze (47th) on the other side just missed. Ritsu Doan put a tricky trick on Bruma in the 55th minute, who – barely offside – scored with left to make it 2-0. Then Ilzer took the pillars Jan Gorenc-Stankovic, Kelvin Yeboah and Andreas Kuen from the field, later also Gregory Wüthrich.
Bruma increased to 2-0 (55th minute)
Bruma scored 2-0 for PSV Eindhoven after an assist from Ritsu Doan. At first there was suspicion of an offside position, but the hit counted.
The game was decided, even if substitute Anderson Niangbo caused a bit of unrest with two shots on goal. The ball wins of the storm kickers became less and less. Yorbe Vertessen (80th) missed a high percentage chance to make it 3-0, shortly afterwards he hit the goal from an offside position.
Voices for the game:
Christian Ilzer (Sturm coach): “We had a plan where we said we would leave the game to PSV. PSV controlled us with possession but they found almost no chances to score. What we missed, we were too harmless in the front, we missed that punch. But I think going 0-0 into the break would have been the key. Then unfortunately this goal happened. And overall you can say that we scored both goals ourselves. That’s not enough at this level to defeat such a great team or to endanger it in any way. “
Jakob Jantscher (Sturm offensive player): “I think we would have been in if we had gone 0-0 into the break. It would actually have been a good result for us, because we didn’t get very much together in the first half. You have to acknowledge that this is a different quality. We had relatively little access for over 90 minutes, had little chances, and in the end we had a couple of long-range shots. But if you want to get something, you have to play a lot more actively, we absolutely couldn’t do that today. “
UEFA Europa League, Group B, fifth matchday
Thursday:
PSV Eindhoven – Sturm Graz 2:0 (1:0)
Eindhoven, Philips Stadium, no spectators allowed (due to CoV pandemic), SR Raczkowski (POL)
Torfolge: 1:0 Carlos Vinicius (45./Elfmeter), 2:0 Bruma (55.)
PSV: Drommel – Mwene, Ramalho, Boscagli (58./Obispo), Mauro Junior – Gutierrez (70./Pröpper), Götze (70./Van Ginkel), Sangare – Doan (87./Antonisse), Carlos Vinicius (58./ Vertessen), Bruma
Sturm: Siebenhandl – Jäger, Affengruber, Wüthrich (75./Geyrhofer), Dante (46./Gazibegovic) – Ljubic, Gorenc-Stankovic (62./Borkovic), Kuen (62./Prass) – Sarkaria, Jantscher – Yeboah (62. / Niangbo)
Yellow cards: Doan or Gazibegovic
The best: Sangare, Doan, Bruma and Niangbo
