Mijnans steals the show for PSV with a hat-trick against former club Sparta
Sven Mijnans fired PSV past his former club Sparta Rotterdam with a hat-trick on Sunday evening. The Eindhoven side fell behind unexpectedly at the Philips Stadion after a blunder from goalkeeper Matej Kovár, but Mijnans and Kodai Sano turned the game around completely: 4-1. PSV therefore go top of the VriendenLoterij Eredivisie.
Peter Bosz surprisingly left Ivan Perisic, Ruben van Bommel and Ricardo Pepi on the bench and watched PSV threaten early. After three minutes, Guus Til was just short of turning in Paul Wanner's low cross at the far post.
After a quarter of an hour, though, PSV gifted Sparta the lead. Bas Kuipers picked out Milan Zonneveld with a long ball, Matej Kovar completely missed it outside his area, and the Sparta striker slid the 0-1 into the empty net with ease.
PSV responded quickly to that setback. Sven Mijnans first saw a long-range effort blocked, then in the 23rd minute he headed in the equaliser from an Esmir Bajraktarevic cross.
Six minutes before half-time, PSV took complete control. Bajraktarevic laid the ball off to Kodai Sano, who struck from around twenty metres and, via goalkeeper Michael Brouwer, made it 2-1.
Following the break, Sparta still believed they could get something and created several excellent chances to equalise. Kovar made amends for his earlier mistake by denying Zonneveld, while Mitchell van Bergen fired narrowly wide soon after.
Sparta stayed dangerous after the hour too, and Kovar again had to react to a powerful header from Zonneveld. Bosz then changed things up, sending on Van Bommel, Pepi and Perisic, while former PSV player Isaac Babadi came on for Sparta.
In the 74th minute, Mijnans ended any hope of a Rotterdam comeback. Mauro Júnior found Wanner from the left, Brouwer saved his effort, but Mijnans reacted quickest to the rebound and fired home his second of the evening and the 3-1 against his former club.
Even that was not enough for Mijnans. In the 88th minute, the former Sparta player completed his hat-trick with a beautifully placed strike from just outside the penalty area to put PSV 4-1 up.
