Malik Tillman’s drawn penalty for PSV helped the Dutch team fight back to earn a point against Sevilla, while Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah could only help AC Milan maintain a draw at BVB as Gio Reyna watched from the bench.
PSV Eindhoven 2 – 2 Sevilla
Both Sergiño Dest and Malik Tillman played from whistle to whistle for PSV Eindhoven on Tuesday night, with the latter’s earned penalty helping the team to fight back twice for a draw against Sevilla.
Ricardo Pepi also saw a few minutes of action, coming of the bench in the 82nd minute as PSV scored two late goals, the first of which saw the Texan directly involved in the set-up.
Tillman’s stock continued to rise thanks to another strong performance on the right side of the midfield. He played the full 90 minutes, took a pair of shots, created one chance, drew three fouls, and earned the penalty that momentarily put PSV on even footing against their visitors.
Lined up at left back, Dest also put on a strong whistle-to-whistle showing, completing all but two of his 34 passes, creating one chance, successfully completing one of his two attempted dribbles, making seven recoveries and winning five of eight duels, while committing a pair of fouls.
An early cross by Dest from the left flank to the far post looked dangerous, but was punched clear by Ørjan Nyland just before Johan Bakayoko could get his head onto it.
André Ramalho looked to have headed PSV into the lead at the 36-minute mark, only to have the goal immediately called back for a clear off-side. Similarly, Sevilla thought they had fought their way into the lead seven minutes into the second half after Adrià Pedrosa claimed a botched clearance deep in PSV’s half and beat the keeper with a low shot to the far post, however a VAR review showed that his hand made glancing contact with the ball in the build-up.
The visitors did finally take the lead in the 68th minute off the foot of Nemanja Gudelj, whose acrobatic, sweeping shot from six yards rattled the back of the PSV net.
Pepi entered the fray with eight minutes left in place of central defender Olivier Boscagli, and the hosts quickly found their breakthrough.
Pepi dropped a short pass from the top edge of the area to the onrushing Tillman, who took on three defenders with a spinning move towards goal. In his attempt to stop the American’s advance, Sergio Ramos instead tripped him up for the penalty, with Luuk de Jong easily converting to the right side of goal.
Barely one minute later, Sevilla again took the lead, with with Youssef En-Nasyri breaking free on a run up the middle and heading in pinpoint cross from Juanlu Sánchez.
However, with their last bit of energy, PSV again equalized five minutes into injury time, after a poorly-cleared free kick by Hirving Lozano rattled around in the area and fell at the foot of Jordan Teze at the right post for a short, opportunistic finish.
The draw leaves PSV with one point from their first two Group B games, and in a tough position to rise from last place into the top two spots destined for the knockout round. Prior to the upcoming international break, they will visit Sparta Rotterdam in Eredivisie action on Sunday.
Borussia Dortmund 0 – 0 AC Milan
Both Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah started for AC Milan while Borussia Dortmund’s Gio Reyna was an unused substitute, as the two teams fought to a scoreless stalemate on Wednesday evening.
Earning their second start together and third extended mutual run-out on the right side of Stefano Pioli’s 4-3-3 formation, the USMNT pair were solid, but ultimately unable to push their team to what would have been a much-needed victory.
Pulisic had just 30 touches during his 69 minutes, forcing a save with his lone shot, creating one additional chance, completing 11 out of 12 passes, losing all five of his duels, while firing two accurate crosses in five attempts.
His lone shot came in the 54th minute, who had a decent angle when receiving the ball from Rafael Leao at the penalty spot, but hitting his blast on the turn directly at BVB keeper Gregor Kobel.
Musah had one shot and created one chance, while winning three of nine duels, making six recoveries, one interception and two clearances, but unsurprisingly picked up a yellow card in the waning moments for blatantly tripping Nico Schlotterbeck.
Milan did come agonizingly close to pulling out the victory with just four minutes left in regulation, after Samuel Chukwueze’s shot from seven yards was blocked by Kobel and landed directly at the foot of Tijani Reijnders, but the Dutch midfielder’s volley was just inches wide right.
The result leaves both teams in a difficult spot in terms of their chances to advance to the knockout round. Milan is third in Group F with two points while Dortmund are last with only a single point to their names. The Rossoneri will be back in action on Saturday with a visit to Genoa, while Dortmund host Union Berlin on the same afternoon in Bundesliga action.
Notes
Cameron Carter-Vickers made his return to the field for Celtic after a lengthy injury lay-off, playing the final half-hour of their 2-1 home loss to Lazio. The Hoops are dead-last in Group E with little hope of rising. They host Kilmarnock on Saturday in domestic action before Carter-Vickers heads stateside for USMNT duty.
Brenden Aaronson played the final minutes in Union Berlin’s disappointing 3-1 home loss to Portiguese team Braga. The Berliners lost on a 94th-minute winner by Braga’s Andre Castro, a result that leaves them bottom of Group C with no points from their first two games. Aaronson did take one shot, a lunging header with five minutes left that went just wide.
Sam Vines is still recovering from injury and is not in Royal Antwerp’s squad for the group stage. The Great Old fell by a 3-2 score at home to Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday evening, a disappointing result after they initially took a 2-0 lead in the first half.
