PSV Aims to Break Opening-Day Curse Against Shakhtar Donetsk
PSV Eindhoven walk into this Champions League campaign with a familiar weight on their shoulders and a very different feeling in their legs. Five times in a row they have started the group stage with a defeat. Five times the tone of Europe was set in 90 bruising minutes.
Peter Bosz is convinced this year is different.
On the eve of their opener against Shakhtar Donetsk at the Philips Stadion, the PSV manager cut a confident, almost impatient figure. His team, he insisted, is not just older and wiser than a year ago – it is simply better.
“I can firmly say that our development is far more advanced than at this stage last year,” Bosz said. “We play much better football now, but we must step it up another notch for the Champions League.”
This is no ordinary curtain-raiser for the Dutch champions. It is PSV’s 20th appearance in the main phase of the competition, nudging them past Ajax’s 19 and underlining their status as the country’s most frequent modern visitors to Europe’s top table. That record, though, is stained by those opening‑day stumbles.
Bosz wants that storyline buried.
One game at a time, no grand promises
The 62-year-old refused to be drawn into talk of where PSV should finish in the new league-style phase. No sweeping declarations, no bold knockout predictions. His message stayed narrow: deal with Shakhtar, then worry about the rest.
The focus, he argued, has to match the quality of the football.
Bosz spoke of a side that now moves as a unit, that understands his ideas in a way last season’s group simply did not at this point. The patterns are sharper, the pressing more coordinated, the ball circulation cleaner. Domestic form has fed belief.
But he also knows Europe punishes any lapse.
The Champions League, he reminded his players, demands a higher gear – in intensity, in concentration, in the ruthlessness needed to turn dominance into points. The football might be “much better” than a year ago, yet Bosz will only be satisfied when that translates into a hard, cold three points.
Van Bommel storm: ‘Laughable and ridiculous’
Away from tactics and targets, Bosz found himself defending not just his team, but one young player in particular.
Ruben van Bommel has been at the centre of a media storm after a controversial tackle, and the PSV coach did not hide his irritation at the scale of the reaction. He chose not to treat Van Bommel differently in the aftermath, wary that any special handling would only inflate the incident.
Instead, he pointed to a wider hypocrisy.
Bosz highlighted serious injuries suffered by PSV players in the past that, in his view, drew far less outrage than the current debate around Van Bommel. The contrast clearly grates.
“All this media outrage is laughable and ridiculous,” he said. “It was just one incident in a football match. This polemic needs to end now for Ruben’s peace of mind.”
There was at least one positive note: Bosz expressed relief that the opponent on the receiving end of the challenge is recovering well.
Shakhtar memories and goals guaranteed
Now comes Shakhtar, a club long associated with the blend that has defined their European identity: gifted Brazilian imports knitted together with high‑level Ukrainian talent. Even in exile and amid upheaval, that model has often made them awkward, sometimes dangerous, opposition.
For PSV, the name Shakhtar still stirs fresh memories. In a dramatic 2024 clash in Eindhoven, they trailed 2-0 heading into the 86th minute and somehow emerged 3-2 winners, rattling in three late goals in a wild, breathless finale. It was the kind of night that lives in a stadium’s walls.
That chaos fits a pattern. Across PSV’s last 10 Champions League matches, there have been 44 goals. This is a team that does not do quiet European evenings. The Philips Stadion crowd has come to expect drama; the numbers suggest they will get it again.
Bosz, though, will demand something more controlled. He wants the same attacking verve, the same willingness to commit bodies forward, but wrapped in the kind of focus that kills off a game long before stoppage time becomes a circus.
The stage is set: a record 20th campaign, a home crowd hungry for a statement, an opponent that knows how to spoil the script, and a manager who believes his side has finally grown into the demands of this level.
If PSV really have outgrown that opening‑day hex, this is the night to prove it.
