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There is a future
Bryan Robson, Dave Mackay;
You will recover.

Philips Elftal was formed in 1913 for employees of the Philips company. Despite the killing fields being just down the road, the Dutch played football through much of the First World War; the club’s first league game was in September 1915 and the following year the name Philips Sport Vereniging was adopted. The football department of PSV have played in the top domestic division since 1926, and have won the title twenty two times as well as the KNVB Cup nine times and the Johan Cruijff Schaal ten times. In 1955 they became the first Dutch side to enter the European Cup. They won the UEFA Cup in 1978 and ten years later the treble, taking the European Cup on penalties from Benfica in Stuttgart. They lie twenty eighth in the current UEFA rankings (we are twentieth).
They have always played in the Philips Stadion (originally called Philips Sportpark), which was built as part of Philipsdorf, a garden city constructed by the company. The stadium has been developed over the years until the filling-in of the corners, completed in 2002, brought the capacity to 35,000. We have played there twice before. In the second round of the UEFA Cup in 1984 we secured a scoreless draw after a torrid first half and might have won had not Gordon Strachan’s lob been cleared off the line. In the Champions League in 2000 we had a great start when Paul Scholes converted a penalty after only two minutes but PSV took us apart and goals by Wilfred Bouma, Marc van Bommell and Mateja Kežman, who turned Mikael Silvestre inside out, gave them a three-one win.
For our first visit to Holland for fifteen years Louis van Gaal picked Ashley Young and Anthony Martial, who had both come on with effect on Saturday. To counter the goal threat of Luke de Jong, Chris Smalling and Daley Blind were swapped at centre back; Blind, as a former Ajax player, got a hostile reception from the passionate Dutch crowd proud of its provinciality. Memphis Depay’s return was greeted with warmth. Bastian Schweinsteiger was starting his sixtieth Champions League tie, Matteo Darmian his first.
We began hesitantly but soon looked surprisingly comfortable and could have gone ahead after six minutes when Martial’s near post touch denied Ander Herrera a tap-in from Memphis’ cross. A quarter of an hour had not passed, however, when an evening of growing promise was cruelly altered. Luke Shaw exchanged passes with Memphis and embarked upon a brilliant run for goal which was curtailed by a two-footed tackle from Héctor Moreno which broke both the bones in his right leg. After lengthy treatment he was stretchered off the field, his season over, his career in jeopardy.
Marcos Rojo came on at centre back, Blind moved across but for a while we lost our appetite; Herrera halted his run for Schweinsteiger’s long pass, Martial allowed himself to be brushed off the ball by Andrés Guardado. Joshua Brenet robbed Young. Rojo gave the ball away and Jorrit Hendrix set up Maxine Lestienne for a shot which David de Gea fielded. Even when Mata curled in a lovely free kick as we slowly regained our composure it was Jeffrey Bruma who got his head to it. PSV attacks were infrequent but fast and direct; Lestienne’s cross was cleared by Rojo, who did even better a minute later under challenge from De Jong. Yet our more cautious approach yielded the opening goal, thoroughly deserved. Herrera gave the ball up the left to Blind, whose pass looked nothing special until Memphis suddenly cut in at pace, dribbling away from Davy Pröpper, past Bruma and Moreno and slotting the ball coolly past the onrushing goalkeeper; 41 minutes 1-0.
We were afire. Memphis rolled Martial’s delivery just wide of the far post. Smalling robbed Lestienne, powered through the middle, put Bruma on his backside with a little dink, beat Hendrix’s tackle but goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet managed to knock down the powerful shot with his arm. This was purposeful and exciting but as eight minutes of added time began Moreno beat Darmian to head Lestienne’s corner into the net off Blind, without whose deflection Young at the far post may well have cleared; 45 +2 minutes 1-1.
We continued attacking with style either side of the interval but Young, Juan Mata and Memphis could not get it through a crowded defence, there was no-one on hand to convert Young’s cross or Rojo’s and when Memphis and Martial exchanged slickly, Zoet saved. It was Darmian’s mistake that cost us the crucial goal, so much against the run of play that it was difficult to credit that it had happened. Guardado intercepted his poor pass and gently volleyed it to Lestienne, the left wing open for him to run and volley his cross. At the far post Luciano Narsingh was also running free to head the ball into the net. It was their third attempt on goal; 57 minutes 1-2.
Martial made a shot for Mata, who skied it from outside the area. Moreno took Young out cynically. Memphis’ free kick was charged down by Guardado but inevitably our sustained, intelligent attacking play brought us the golden chance we deserved with a peach of a ball from Schweinsteiger. Mata’s run up the inside right channel put him through the defence but he ended up lying on the floor, his face in his hands as the ball dribbled off his foot harmlessly past the post. There were more opportunities; Herrera’s shot was saved, Young’s was blocked, Bruma got the run of the ball as Martial put Memphis through but we were losing impetus. When we brought on Marouane Fellaini we took off Herrera, who had been our ferret and from playing so well we were back in a familiar place, methodical possession with little threat. When Memphis put Martial through at pace there was no-one for him to pass to and his shot rolled across the goal.
Increasingly, the danger was that PSV would score another; Lestienne was twice away but took to shooting from distance and when Schweinsteiger became the latest United player to lose the ball de Jong inexplicably blasted it over. We curbed the sloppiness but as the home crowd wound itself up to a fever of excitement prior to a night smoking grass, only Schweinsteiger seemed to understand the urgency of the situation with calm distribution and a biting tackle. There were tired young legs out there, Fellaini never really looked a threat and five minutes was insufficient for Antonio Valencia to make any impression.
Perhaps because of Shaw’s injury, perhaps because we had all been anticipating our return to the greatest of club competitions or perhaps because, astonishingly, we have only once before lost the first group match in the Champions League, this was a truly depressing defeat and at its end a black cloud crossed the mind, a blue mist surrounded the soul. The commentators on BT were talking as if defeat was a shock but PSV won the Dutch championship by seventeen points last season while we were scrapping with a mediocre Liverpool for fourth place. Inexperience, too, is a dangerous adjective to apply to a club which has discovered and developed Ruud Gullit, Ronald Koeman, Romário, Ronaldo (the stocky Brazilian, not the Portuguese six pack), Jaap Stam, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Arjen Robben and Memphis Depay. Their inexperienced player is tomorrow’s world star.
Scholes, an expert in reckless tackles, thought we should have had a penalty for Moreno’s tackle on Shaw and that Moreno should have been shown a red card. Roy Keane, an expert on violence generally, thought the tackle brilliant. Nicola Rizzoli, whose opinion was the only one which counted, has refereed a World Cup final and a European Cup final. Neither did the score reflect the play; 62% United possession, 17 goal attempts to 6, 9 corners to 3, 502 passes at 86% success against 222 at 73%. We need urgently to address the fact that we are vulnerable to anyone who defends in numbers and attacks at pace.
Shaw was operated upon in Eindhoven; a clean double fracture should not prove the end of a nineteen year old’s career. Also importantly there was apparently good camaraderie between the opposing fans in the streets of the city. As to defeat, when we last lost the first game in our group, at Juventus in 1996 where we were outclassed, we still qualified. At least the United under 19s took their chances and won the earlier match three-nil.
Paul Andrew James