PSV ‘back in the mix’ after huge victory against Porto, says Bosz

Syndicated reporting provided by Stats Perform and reviewed by the SoccerNews editorial team.

Peter Bosz said his PSV team “dared to play football” during their away win against Porto, a result he believes has got them “back in the mix” in the Champions League. 

PSV entered MD3 with just one point from their opening two games against RB Leipzig and Shakhtar Donetsk, but they emerged from the Estadio Do Dragao as 1-0 victors. 

Ivan Perisic headed over a glorious early chance for PSV before Oskar Pietuszewski shot wide at the other end moments later following an error from goalkeeper Matej Kovar. 

The best chance of the first half went to the Eredivisie side, with Alberto Costa’s loose pass allowing Filip Kostic to steal in, but his effort struck the base of the left post. 

PSV struck the woodwork again through Esmir Bajraktarevic in the second half, but the visitors took the lead in the 57th minute when Sven Mijnans’ attempted shot at goal was tucked in at the back post by Guus Til. 

But Porto should have drawn level when Kovar’s poor ball presented an opportunity to Hwang In-Beom. He squared the ball to Andre Silva, but his shot was brilliantly stopped by the PSV goalkeeper, before Victor Froholdt’s attempt on the rebound was cleared off the line. 

Some heroic defending from Sergino Dest spared Kovar’s blushes once again with a last-ditch tackle to deny Costa, with PSV holding on despite Porto’s late flurry of chances. 

The result saw PSV end a five-match winless run in the Champions League this evening (D1 L4), with this their first victory in the competition since beating Liverpool 4-1 in November 2025.

“This is who we are; we are PSV. We want to play good football and work hard,” Bosz said.

“It was up to us to continue playing a role in the Champions League, because with one point from three matches, it is going to be difficult. We wanted at least a draw, but winning is, of course, even better. Now we are back in the mix.

“I’m proud that we were able to hold on. We dared to play football, and we won the ball back very quickly.

“Defensively, we weren’t good in the first few minutes, but when Mauro [Junior] and Kodai [Sano] started pressing, we got it under control again.”

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It was also PSV’s first victory away in Portugal in European competition since March 1975, a 2-1 win against Benfica in the Cup Winners’ Cup. The Dutch side had failed to win on any of their last seven visits to the country prior to Tuesday’s win (D2 L5 – including qualifiers).

PSV attempted 18 shots, tallying an expected goals (xG) total of 1.91, their joint-most on record in a Champions League away match (since 2003-04), equalling the 18 they managed against Brest in December 2024.

For Porto, however, they have now lost each of their last four Champions League matches, which is their joint-longest run of defeats in the competition along with a run of four between November 2021 and September 2022.

And after failing to score against Man City on MD1 and against PSV, Porto have blanked in consecutive home matches in the Champions League group stages for the first time since 2004-05, though Francesco Farioli said his team ran out of luck in their quest for a goal. 

“Honestly, the feeling is that even if we’d played for another 25 minutes, we would have created dangerous situations but still wouldn’t have scored,” Farioli conceded.

“That’s the feeling we had, and of course it’s frustrating. We created enough to deserve more than a defeat.

“In the second half, I think we had a very positive reaction and did enough to deserve a different result.

“But this is the third time I’ve come here after a Champions League game and said we deserved a different result, yet we’re still not getting it. So there’s definitely something we need to do better.”

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