PSV Aims to End Opening-Day Curse Against Shakhtar Donetsk
PSV Eindhoven walk into this Champions League campaign with an old problem and a new conviction. The Dutch champions have lost their opening group game in each of their last five seasons in the competition. Peter Bosz is convinced that run has to stop.
At the Philips Stadion, against Shakhtar Donetsk, he believes his team finally arrive with the tools – and the maturity – to make it happen.
This is PSV’s 20th appearance in the main phase of the Champions League, nudging them past Ajax’s tally of 19. It is a symbolic milestone for a club that has spent years trying to reassert itself among Europe’s elite. Bosz, though, is not interested in history lessons or long-term declarations about how far this group can go.
One game. Then the next. Nothing beyond that.
“I can firmly say that our development is far more advanced than at this stage last year,” the 62-year-old said at his pre-match press conference. “We play much better football now, but we must step it up another notch for the Champions League.”
That is the crux of his message. PSV may be flying domestically and playing, in his words, superior collective football to previous seasons, but Bosz knows Europe is unforgiving. Intensity has to rise. Concentration cannot dip. Any lapse is punished.
The mood around the club is buoyant. The football is sharper, the patterns more cohesive, the squad more settled. Bosz sees a group that understands his demands in a way it simply did not 12 months ago. Yet he has been around this competition long enough to know that confidence means very little if it is not backed up by edge.
Off the pitch, he has been fighting a different kind of battle. The build-up has been clouded by a media storm around Ruben van Bommel after a controversial tackle that drew heavy criticism. Bosz came out swinging in defence of the youngster.
“All this media outrage is laughable and ridiculous,” he said. “It was just one incident in a football match. This polemic needs to end now for Ruben’s peace of mind.”
He admitted he chose not to treat Van Bommel differently in the aftermath, wary that any special handling would only inflate the story. The coach also pointed to what he sees as a clear double standard: serious injuries suffered by PSV players in the past, he argued, sparked nowhere near the same outrage.
While that debate rages outside, inside the dressing room the focus is on Shakhtar. The Ukrainian side have long built their identity on blending gifted Brazilian attackers with strong local talent, a mix that has made them awkward opponents for almost everyone in Europe.
The fixture also carries a fresh scar for Shakhtar and a vivid memory for PSV fans. In their dramatic 2024 meeting in Eindhoven, PSV were staring at defeat before exploding into life, scoring three times after the 86th minute to turn 0-2 into a staggering 3-2 victory. That kind of turnaround lodges itself in a club’s psyche.
With 44 goals in PSV’s last 10 Champions League matches, this is not a team that tiptoes through European nights. They play on the front foot, they leave space, and they live with the consequences. Neutrals will expect goals. Bosz will settle for control.
He knows exactly what is at stake. Break the opening‑day hex here, at home, and PSV’s 20th Champions League campaign starts to feel like something different. Fail again, and that old story starts to write itself all over.
