For the first time ever, three U.S. internationals played in the same UEFA Champions League game. That is an accomplishment worth celebrating. As for the game itself? Much less so.
PSV trio Sergiño Dest, Malik Tillman and Ricardo Pepi all shared the field on Wednesday, but the Dutch side was blown away in a 4-0 defeat to Arsenal to kick off both teams’ group-stage campaigns.
Dest played the full match, while Tillman came on midway through the second half and Pepi was introduced in second-half stoppage time.
In particular, it was a rough night for Dest, who tried and mostly failed to contain Bukayo Saka on the right side of Arsenal’s attack. The first and third goal for the Gunners could at least partially be blamed on Dest.
First, he completely switched off and allowed Saka to run past him and score on a rebound.
Sergiño Dest goes forward with the best of em but has a penchant for shutting down defensively.
That’s the one thing separating him from taking his game to the next level.
He can be a liability.
— herculez gomez (@herculezg) September 20, 2023
Dest would later get sucked inside and was unable to close down Gabriel Jesus quickly enough, as the Brazilian had plenty of time to take a touch and fire home Arsenal’s third goal.
THIS TOUCH AND FINISH FROM GABBY JESUS. 🚀😳 pic.twitter.com/fNANVPRUD1
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) September 20, 2023
After the game, PSV head coach Peter Bosz admitted that Arsenal’s superior quality was the difference, adding that his team did not defend well in its own box.
“[Our players] worked, they played with the ball, but the difference in quality was too great,” Bosz said.
“I’m willing to take a critical look at myself. They defended well in their box, we did not in ours. Then you run into a major defeat. If we play more at this level more, we’ll learn from these mistakes. I hope we can see that in the second leg in December, against the best team in the group and one of the best teams in the world.”
PSV will also face Lens and Sevilla in a difficult Group B.
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