Ruud van Nistelrooy confident PSV will respond against Arsenal after shock loss
PSV suffered a 4-2 defeat to Groningen in Eredivisie on Sunday
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Your support makes all the difference.Ruud van Nistelrooy is certain PSV will avoid embarrassment when they host Arsenal again in the Europa League.
The second-placed Eredivisie side suffered a 4-2 loss to Groningen during Sunday’s domestic action, conceding three goals during a catastrophic six minutes to end the first half.
But boss Van Nistelrooy was adamant his squad to face the Gunners, who beat them 1-0 in London last week, are made of tougher stuff and will have exorcised any demons well before Thursday’s contest.
“I’m confident that something like this won’t happen again against Arsenal,” he told a press conference.
“I evaluated those six minutes as an incident. There were several individual faults in a row. It shouldn’t happen, but it happens. You also have to score five goals and you score two. That’s the simple conclusion for me.
“Then you lose. That hurts. We are characters and we are in top sport. We are not made of sugar and move on to the next one.”
The hosts enter the clash second in Group A, five points behind leaders Arsenal who have already qualified for the knockout stages and need only a draw against Van Nistelrooy’s side to secure top spot.
PSV, meanwhile, might need to wait until the last game of the group stage to learn their fate.
They currently sit three points clear of third-placed Bodo/Glimt, who take on Zurich on Thursday, but will travel to Norway for their final match.
“In all likelihood it is (decided then),” said Van Nistelrooy. “But we’re going for a miracle. If you win yourself and Bodo doesn’t win, then you’ll be there tomorrow.
“We all hope for that. But it may just be that the decision will not be made until next week in Norway.”
That potential miracle would be greatly boosted by PSV upending Arsenal’s perfect group-stage record, with the Premier League side winning at the Emirates last week thanks to Granit Xhaka’s 70th-minute half-volley.
Van Nistelrooy added: “I hope we can continue the way we played in the second half.
“Arsenal were the dominant side there, but in the first half they were completely dominant, we were very low in our block and we were pushed back far. In the second half we were able to hit the ball a bit more.”
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