In an interview with ESPN, Fortuna Sittard’s Deroy Duarte praised goalkeeper Ivor Pandur as his side picked up a crucial point against Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven and joked the state of the pitch played to their advantage.
Pandur, 22, pulled off a brilliant performance as the visitors created plenty of chances to wrap the game up as they made 32 attempts at goal.
The hosts took the lead just before half-time thanks to Inigo Cordoba before Turkish midfielder Dogan Erdogan received a red card for a high-foot challenge on Luuk de Jong. Xavi Simons and Ibrahima Sangare gave the hosts the lead before conceding a penalty late into injury-time which Burak Yilmaz converted to ensure Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side get just one point.
Duarte said: “This PSV has a lot of qualities. Last week we played a bad game [lost 0-2 at home against Go Ahead Eagles]. And if you can react like that, that’s great.”
The fact that Fortuna was able to react in this way also partly had to do with the opponent and the circumstances. PSV made no fewer than 32 attempts on goal, but only scored twice.
“I saw that things were not going well at PSV,” Duarte laughed. “The field was also bad, they couldn’t really play football on it.”
“It wasn’t the best, but it worked out well for us. So I have nothing to complain about.”
