This newsitem has been supplied by PSV.nl
PSV coach Guus Hiddink was content that PSV had hardly conceded anything. His French colleague announced at the post-match press conference that he was not surprised by the match plan of PSV."We had a bright start and put Monaco under pressure from the first moment because we expected that it would cause problems for them?, started Hiddink his analysis." It soon paid off, when Alex scored an excellent headed goal. It?s a shame we didn?t double the advantage; we earned a few chances to do so and you won?t get so many opportunities in a European game. We lost possession too quickly at times, so that we could not perform as well as we did in the initial stages. We changed the pace of our game in the second half. We threatened in particular at the right flank, where Park displayed a fine performance. We did not give away anything, apart from the shot that Saviola fired over the goal. It was a typically European Cup match. Hiddink emphasized that the final decision will be made in the second leg. "They will have to attack in order to come on equal terms. We are not a side that can lean back and hope to keep another blank sheet. We will attempt to score an away goal in the return leg in Monaco. We played in a disciplined way tonight and we have progressed in that respect. I am content, but yet I wished we had already decided the battle in this match. Now it?s far from over yet."Didier Deschamps announced wryly that his side had not taken advantage of some slender chances. "We should have presented more problems to PSV. We knew they are dangerous from set pieces. We could not stop them from scoring the opening goal, but my team did pretty well in defence all in all. 1-0 is a fair result for PSV; we are obviously disappointed, because we didn?t score a goal. So the challenge will be to restore parity at home. That?s what we managed to do a couple of times last season and I hope we can repeat that feat in two weeks? time once again. We will leave with mixed feelings. We reasonably controlled the game, but we didn?t play well in attack. This defeat was not necessary, as we earned some chances, but didn?t capitalize on them. I was not surprised by the match plan of PSV. They played as I had expected them to do", concluded Deschamps.