Brilliant Bajraktarevic leads champions PSV to comfortable win over PEC Zwolle

[p]Playing their first game after being crowned Eredivisie champions, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/psv/M9UEHJWi/"]PSV[/a] played [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/zwolle/r1L5w2EB/"]PEC Zwolle[/a] with a vastly altered starting XI. 19-year-old midfielder [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/van-den-berg-joel/zDcwzhj2/"]Joel van den Berg[/a] made his full debut, while goalkeeper [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/olij-nick/Q5k517m1/"]Nick Olij[/a] made his competitive debut for PSV and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/driouech-couhaib/KMLoViGQ/"]Couhaib Driouech[/a], [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/til-guus/bcK8T2U3/"]Guus Til[/a], and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/bajraktarevic-esmir/GUqdXgyQ/"]Esmir Bajraktarevic[/a] lined up behind [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/pepi-ricardo/GE8fEuGS/"]Ricardo Pepi[/a] in place of [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/perisic-ivan/4AbKyVr9/"]Ivan Perisic[/a], [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/saibari-ismael/WzSmqNMQ/"]Ismael Saibari[/a], and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/man-dennis/zwvX5g6l/"]Dennis Man[/a].[/p][p][b]PSV made light work of claiming an early lead when Ricardo Pepi nodded in a smart cross from Esmir Bajraktarevic to open the scoring in the eighth minute.[/b][/p][p]The champion-crowned hosts continued in a lower gear, yet gave PEC no space or time to go on the offensive. [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/mauro-junior/jZwOs76l/"]Mauro Junior[/a]'s low effort was PSV's only other real chance of an uneventful first half - one that even saw PSV's [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/boadu-myron/GE24QNxi/"]Myron Boadu[/a] and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/obispo-armando/dzZ57CXC/"]Armando Obispo[/a] join in on the Mexican wave from the team bench.[/p][embed guid="7a479e61-fa03-49a5-adfe-8b19b5192d70" url="https://x.com/ESPNnl/status/2047404561829105751?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p][b]PEC took a page out of PSV's book and took fewer than five minutes to level the score in the second half - a brilliant deep ball from [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/thomas-ryan/6FLvaY09/"]Ryan Thomas[/a] found [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/velanas-odysseus/WEIaXxw2/"]Odysseus Velanas[/a], who extended it to [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/oosting-thijs/K29NCSJK/"]Thijs Oosting[/a]. Where the latter failed to slot it past Olij, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/buurmeester-zico/E9scgj25/"]Zico Buurmeester[/a] rose to the occasion to fire it home through [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/flamingo-ryan/8WWh7RyC/"]Ryan Flamingo[/a]'s legs.[/b][/p][p][b]The lethal duo of Pepi and Bajraktarevic were unfazed by PEC's goal and combined to restore PSV's lead within minutes, with Pepi heading in another lovely cross from Bajraktarevic, this time blindly and via [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/de-graaff-tom/jcaFlYyJ/"]De Graaff[/a]'s crossbar.[/b][/p][p]PEC's goal seemed to have woken PSV up, as Bajraktarevic and Van den Berg took De Graaff under fire with the final third of the match looking to become a one-sided affair.[/p][p][b]Esmir Bajraktarevic continued his fabulous evening with an assist to PEC defender [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/graves-jensen-simon/j3HpHmEF/"]Simon Graves[/a], who punted the ball into the roof of his own net to wrap up a PSV win with 20 minutes to go.[/b][/p][embed guid="9b354ddc-9fee-4203-afb6-856337917350" url="https://x.com/ESPNnl/status/2047410923002818927?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p][b]None other than Bajraktarevic put an exclamation mark on PSV's evening with a goal to add to his impressive night's tally, slotting the ball into De Graaff's bottom left corner from distance.[/b][/p][p][b]A dominant final 20 minutes saw PSV extend the lead even further when Bajraktarevic snatched the ball amid three PEC players, eventually setting up Couhaib Driouech for the 5-1 after the Moroccan forward ricocheted Guus Til's lob into an empty net.[/b][/p][p][b]Esmir Bajraktarevic couldn't stop stuffing the stat sheets in Eindhoven, capping off a brilliant move by Driouech by firing it past De Graaff and making it four PSV goals in ten minutes.[/b][/p][p]PSV's comfortable win sends the Eindhoven side on their merry way to the Spanish island of Ibiza, where the Eredivisie champions will take a holiday amid a short break in Eredivisie football due to the Dutch national holiday of King's Day.[/p][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/soccer/psv-M9UEHJWi/zwolle-r1L5w2EB/?mid=rccgEeIq"]Check out the full match statistics on Flashscore[/a][/b][/p][image alt="Key match stats" id="de575221-9f69-4177-8dd0-3f76988844a3" credit-line="Flashscore" guid="3f658021-2883-47fa-916c-3b4f96074ca4" original-width="1200" original-height="1200" /]