With so much at stake, and across elite sport at any level, it’s the small margins that can sometimes make the biggest differences.
For example, it’s well known that sleep is hugely important as athletes recover and their bodies recharge for the next bout of high intensity workload and PSV Eindhoven’s squad may be feeling a little lethargic today after they were given a colourful wake up call at their city centre hotel this morning…
Good Morning PSV! https://t.co/wddBfO4Zy4 pic.twitter.com/33gBwRmr3d
— Mark Dingwall (@GrandmasterSuck) August 16, 2022
A tactic as old as time itself has seen fans try to intimidate and disrupt opposition players, any means possible and all that.
For those that might be worried about PSV’s fans doing the same to Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s squad in the Netherlands next week, well, it was probably already in the post seeing as it’s exactly what they did to Monaco ahead of their third qualifying round tie last week.
Xavi Simons and Luuk de Jong have spoken this week about Ibrox being the 12th man and that they are expecting a raucous atmosphere so they are fully aware of what they are about to walk into, again, that they are thinking about the pressure they will face when they emerge from the tunnel is a sign that they know they won’t have it their own way – some players thrive in it, others, as we saw last week against Union Saint-Gilloise, crumble.
Hopefully, these won’t be the only fireworks we see from boys in blue and that we have plenty more to celebrate over the coming week, the alternative is sleepless nights similar to the one that PSV’s players have just had to contend with.