Heavy loss against PSV

Berlin – The Eredivisie side ran out comfortable winners on Saturday evening at the Stadion auf dem Wurfplatz/Amateurstadion. A hectic beginning to the game started with Rune Jarstein making a decent save from a Mohamed Ihattaren free-kick after five minutes. Hertha managed to get into the game more, and had their first chance through Dodi Lukébakio after 18 minutes, although the attacker couldn’t hit the target from range. He again missed a decent chance after being fed by Cunha (22’). The ‘Old Lady’ were becoming more dangerous as they searched for the opening goal. Krzysztof Piątek was inches away from breaking the deadlock, while Maximilian Mittelstädt had a header saved by Yvon Mvogo (32’). Despite the Hertha dominance, PSV took the lead in the 37th minute. Donyell Malen burst into the box and his near-post shot crept in to make it 1-0.

Bruno Labaddia made four changes for the second half, however PSV quickly doubled their advantage. Niklas Stark’s attempted clearance unfortunately went into his own net (47’). Jordan Torunarigha’s loss of possession in midfield was duly punished – Sam Lammers played in Malen and he squared it for Cody Gakpo, who made it 3-0 (70’). Lammers added a fourth and final goal six minutes later.

“It wasn’t a pretty game, but it was an important one. We didn’t take our chances and we didn’t communicate enough with each other on the pitch. We are trying to develop a new spine of our team, which will take time. We chose to do this though and we will continue to work on things,” commented Bruno Labbadia. Hertha’s final pre-season game comes next Saturday (5/9/20, 17:00 CEST) away at Hamburger SV.

Hertha BSC: Jarstein (Schwolow 46’) - Zeefuik (Pekarík 65’), Rekik (Maier 46’), Torunarigha, Mittelstädt (Plattenhardt 46’) - Tousart (Leckie 71’), Stark, Darida (Dilrosun 71’) - Lukébakio (Duda 46’), Piątek (Redan 65’), Cunha (Ngankam 77’)

Goals: 0-1 Malen (37‘), 0-2 Stark (OG, 47‘), 0-3 Gakpo (70‘), 0-4 Lammers (76‘)

Referee: Florian Lechner