PSV target for second Hapoel Tel-Aviv win
Friday, October 21, 2011
Article summary
PSV Eindhoven could confirm their progress to the UEFA Europa League round of 32 with a fourth successive Group C win as Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC battle for survival.
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PSV Eindhoven could confirm their progress to the UEFA Europa League round of 32 with a fourth Group C win as Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC battle for survival.
• A victory would be enough to ensure PSV's round of 32 place – unless FC Rapid Bucureşti get three points at Legia Warszawa. If Hapoel pick up fewer points than Legia, they are out.
Previous meetings
• Georginio Wijnaldum's 70th-minute penalty earned PSV a 1-0 win as the sides met for the first time in UEFA competition on matchday three, in what was Hapoel's first competitive contest with a Dutch team.
• Fred Rutten's PSV faced Hapoel's local rivals Bnei Yehuda Tel-Aviv FC in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League play-offs, winning 1-0 at Bloomfield – the venue for the first leg of this fixture – and 1-0 again at home.
Match background
• PSV are unbeaten in six European games (two draws and then four wins) since a 4-1 loss at SL Benfica in last season's UEFA Europa League quarter-finals.
• PSV have gone 15 matches unbeaten at home (11 wins and four draws) since a 3-1 UEFA Champions League group stage loss to Liverpool FC on 9 December 2008. All of those results have come under current coach Rutten, who is yet to lose a continental fixture at PSV Stadion with the club.
• Hapoel have not won in six European away games (a draw and five defeats) since a 3-2 triumph at FC Salzburg in the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League play-offs.
Team facts
• PSV are one of three clubs with 100% records after matchday three along with Sporting Clube de Portugal and RSC Anderlecht.
• Four clubs have yet to pick up a point in the group stage: Hapoel, Shamrock Rovers FC, Malmö FF and AEK Athens FC.
• Hapoel's Mor Shushan turns 22 the day after the match.
• Hapoel coach Dror Kashtan is one of the most respected figures in Israeli football. The former defensive midfielder coached Israel from 2006 to 2010 and took Beitar Jerusalem FC and Bnei Yehuda Tel-Aviv into Europe, as well as Hapoel, whom he has led in three previous spells (1996-97, 1999-2004 and 2005-06).
• PSV boss Fred Rutten spent his entire career as a defender with FC Twente, moving on to the club's coaching staff, and taking charge from 1999 to 2001. He was then Guus Hiddink's assistant at PSV before a second spell at Twente and a season as FC Schalke 04 boss. He took sole command at PSV in 2009.
