Soccer Football - Champions League - PSV Eindhoven v Girona - Philips Stadion, Eindhoven, Netherlands - November 5, 2024 Girona's Arnau Martinez in action REUTERS/Piroschka Van De Wouw
EINDHOVEN, Netherlands (Reuters) -Ryan Flamingo and Malik Tillman scored first half goals as a dominant PSV Eindhoven picked up a first win of their Champions League campaign with an impressive 4-0 victory over 10-man Girona at the Philips Stadion on Tuesday.
Flamingo netted his first Champions League goal when he turned in Tillman’s long throw before the latter added a second when he burst into the box unopposed and produced a fine finish.
Johan Bakayoko’s low drive from the edge of the box and an own goal from Ladislav Krejci sealed an emphatic victory for the Dutch club, who move into the play-off places with five points.
Girona, who are outside of those knockout places in 26th position with three points, were not helped by a second yellow card for captain Arnau Martinez 10 minutes into the second half and might have lost by a greater margin as PSV hit the post.
"The sending off hurt, (before that) the hope of scoring a goal was there," Girona midfielder Oriol Romeu said. "Defeat, pain, it hurts, but must be accepted. You have to change the game plan and we couldn't react as we would have liked.
"The goal of winning nine points is even more complicated for us now."
Girona offered little threat going forward but forced a superb early double save from PSV goalkeeper Walter Benitez. He pushed away Krejci's low shot and seconds later denied Bojan Miovski at the near post.
'GREAT EVENING'
That was against the run of play and PSV went in front on 16 minutes with a fortunate goal.
Tillman's long throw towards the six-yard box was turned into the net by Flamingo, who had got in front of his marker.
The home side doubled their advantage after some poor Girona defending allowed Tillman to surge into the box unopposed and sweep the ball into the far corner of the net from eight yards.
PSV's Luuk de Jong should have made it 3-0 when he was teed up perfectly by the excellent Tillman, but his effort from in front of goal struck the post.
The evening got worse for the visitors when Martinez collected a second yellow card on 55 minutes and PSV were able to add two more goals.
Bakayoko's jinking run on the edge of the box ended with a perfectly placed shot low into the bottom corner, before the ball ricocheted off Krejci and into the net two minutes from fulltime.
"It was a great evening," De Jong said. "We knew they can really play football, but then you have to be quick everywhere, sharp and rotate. How we helped each other was really good."
(Reporting by Nick Said; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
