Cocu: Champions League progress a great achievement for PSV

Phillip Cocu has voiced his delight with PSV’s progress to the knockout stages of the Champions League following their 2-1 win over CSKA Moscow in Eindhoven on Tuesday.

The reigning Eredivisie champions were in danger of going out when Sergei Ignashevich converted a penalty for CSKA to open the scoring in the 76th minute.

But Luuk de Jong levelled the scoring shortly after and Davy Propper netted to make it 2-1 in the 86th minute to send PSV through from Group B.

“We worked hard and the players never let their head down even after falling behind. This is a great achievement for us,” Cocu told SBS6.

“It was not an easy game. You know that you will not get a whole lot of chances, so you know you have to take them. It is great to win like this. The players did everything within their power to progress.

“It says something about our strength at home that we have won all three home games.

“It’s great that PSV are through to the next round. I think I might celebrate with a few glasses of wine.”

PSV last reached the knockout stages of the Champions League in 2006-07.

Meanwhile, CSKA coach Leonid Slutsky admitted the defeat was tough to take.

“It is difficult to comment,” Slutsky told CSKA’s official website.

“Overall, it was absolutely an equal game. We did a lot of things right. You could not imagine such an outcome.”