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PSV draw Fiorentina

Sports

Intro: I'm alive. Wasn't capable of watching the penalty shootout on Wednesday, nor to even look up the result until late afternoon on Thursday. But apparently we won the shootout so it was use in the draw today and not Spurs. And the results of the draw are now known so it's time to reflect.

PSV will play Fiorentina in the UEFA Cup quarter finals. Not the best draw possible but to be honest we could have had a far worse draw as well. Especially considering we first play the away match before returning to Eindhoven. Where we usually tend to play better even though it didn't show on Wednesday.

Prior to the draw, I made a list ordering the teams by most-desirable-to-draw:

  1. Getafe. By far the weakest team of the final eight. UEFA ranking: #58.
  2. Zenith St. Petersburg. Unlikely to be in great form because the Russian league has ended. And it would be fun to meet former PSV-coach Advocaat. (#44)
  3. [b]Rangers/b]. Probably the most fun to watch. Tough but managable. (#29)
  4. Fiorentina. Usually I wouldn't like to draw an Italian team but they actually have the lowest UEFA ranking of all seven: #73.
  5. Bayer Leverkussen. German teams are no fun to play. (#33)
  6. Sporting CP. Don't know them very well and that scares me, especially considering their #23 ranking.
  7. Bayern Munich. Definitely most likely to win the Cup. (#13)

Mind you, PSV has an excellent ranking of #11 itself, having reached two Champions League QFs and four UEFA Cup QFs in nine years. Unfortunately only once the team achieved more when in 2005 it reached the CL semi finals.

So it was indeed a decent draw: not the best but definitely not the worst. I'm not unhappy about Fiorentina and even happier we can't meet Bayern Munich until the final, which definitely improves our odds to reach Manchester. And there's a chance we'll play Rangers in the semis, which would be fun!

The full draw: (April 3, returns April 10)

Expected semis: (April 24, returns May 1)

Weekend update

Personal

I'll keep this short and simple.

Nine Inch Nails was short, but otherwise excellent.

St. Patrick's Day was nice as well, or at least what I remember (a few snogs and a whole lot of drinks).

Sunday was kind of lousy with nearly every team I support (PSV, Liverpool, Celtic) having an off-day. Bloodhound Gang made up for it though.

And now back to work. :-)

De Graafschap 0 - PSV Eindhoven 1 (64')

Sports

PSV broke the 1971 Ajax record for longest streak of not conceding a goal in the Dutch league: 1083 minutes (and counting). We're currently leading by one goal (Alex, 20') and looking for our twelfth consecutive shutout. Assuming that win, our balance almost halfway the season: fifteen games played, thirteen wins, two draws, no losses.

(Make that leading by 0-2, van Bommel just scored a penalty.)

Here's a list of the games that made up the record-breaking streak. Not sure if the numbers add up actually, not sure if injury times counts and all that.

8/28: PSV @ NAC Breda 2-2 (no goal conceded the last 40')
9/11: RKC Waalwijk @ PSV 0-1
9/18: PSV @ NEC 3-0
9/25: SC Heerenveen @ PSV 0-4
10/2: FC Groningen @ PSV 0-3
10/16: PSV @ ADO Den Haag 2-0 (only 70' played due to disturbances)
10/24: Ajax @ PSV 0-2
10/29: PSV @ FC Utrecht 0-0
11/7: PSV @ FC Den Bosch 3-0
11/13: Willem II @ PSV 0-1
11/21: PSV @ Vitesse 2-0
11/27: FC Twente @ PSV 0-2
12/4: PSV @ De Graafschap 2-0 (after 66')

Update: final score tonight: 4-0.

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Tom has more friends but mine are prettier! (#1/1)