plucky psv fall short published: tuesday 22 october 2002, 22.50cet
bv borussia dortmund 1-1 psv eindhoven psv are on the brink of elimination in group a.
psv eindhoven are on the brink of elimination from the uefa champions league, after their group a match with bv borussia dortmund in the westfalenstadion in germany ended in a 1-1 draw.
must-win games the result leaves psv needing to win both of their remaining games to stand any chance of progressing to the second group stage, while dortmund will remain confident of taking their place in the next round.
attacking opening the game was as open as the reverse fixture had been three weeks ago, with both sides immediately on the attack. the first real chance arrived in the eighth minute when psv's danish winger dennis rommedahl dribbled through and forced dortmund goalkeeper jens lehmann to turn his shot behind.
koller on target however, two minutes later the home side were ahead, as tomáš rosický floated a delicate free-kick to the near post, where his fellow czech international jan koller met the ball ahead of ronald waterreus in the psv goal and headed into an empty net.
psv quickly recover psv bounced straight back from such a devastating early setback, and twice within a minute might have been level. arnold bruggink chipped lehmann from a tight angle, only to see his strike disallowed for an earlier foul, and a minute later, mateja kezman raced clear on to johann vogel's pass, only to see his shot hit lehmann and bounce away.
bruggink denied again psv continued to push forward in search of an equaliser, and bruggink saw another attempt to chip the dortmund goalkeeper drift agonisingly over the top of the crossbar and land on the roof of the net.
bøgelund to the rescue the home team soon regained their composure and might have extended their lead three times in as many minutes just past the half-hour. first ewerthon raced away from jan heintze down the dortmund left and squared the ball for koller, who saw his shot towards an unguarded net kept out by kasper bøgelund, and just a minute later, ewerthon again outpaced heintze only to see ernest faber make a crucial interception from his low cross.
kehl goes close the best opportunity arrived in the 33rd minute as, with the away side looking vulnerable against high balls, sebastian kehl beat waterreus to a cross, only to see bøgelund clear his header off the line.
robben lifts psv the signs were not good for the away side, but they came out for the second half in an entirely new frame of mind, with the introduction of attacking midfield player arjen robben seemingly lifting the whole team and inspiring an equaliser within two minutes of the restart. robben’s deep left-wing cross was headed back by rommedahl to bruggink, whose emphatic volley from 25 metres gave lehmann no chance.
chances to win however, dortmund were able to withstand psv's pressure and missed several good chances themselves to win the game, with rosický curling a free-kick just over the bar a minute after the equaliser. both koller and lars ricken also missed clear opportunities, koller failing to connect properly with evanilson’s header when unmarked in front of goal, and ricken firing against waterreus's legs.
