Riding on a bad wave since the turn of the year, PSV have won just one of their five previous Eredivisie games after narrowly beating NAC Breda 3-2 on January 25th. This downward spiral sent the league leaders to second place after drawing to Willem II late in the game and seeing Ajax beat Fortuna Sittard a day later.
Opposite of PSV stood an FC Utrecht side, which, too, hadn't enjoyed 2025 as much as the year prior after winning just one league game since the Christmas break. A streak of five winless games - one of which was a loss to last-placed Almere City in Utrecht - took FC Utrecht out of title contention and widened the gap to the top to nine points.
Things didn't improve for Utrecht after PSV opened the scoring after eleven minutes through Armando Obispo, who could freely head in a dangerous corner kick from Joey Veerman.
The lead wouldn't last much longer as Mike van der Hoorn scored the equaliser just five minutes later by heading in a dangerous Jens Toornstra cross.
PSV kept pushing for the lead after Van der Hoorn's goal, but efforts from Veerman, Richard Ledezma, Guus Til, and Obispo couldn't beat Vasilios Barkas before the break.
The home side kept applying pressure in the second half and limited Utrecht to very few shots but could not retake the lead after Johan Bakayoko and Ivan Perisic saw Barkas keep the visitors in the game.
The lifeline PSV handed Utrecht gave the third-placed visitors the opportunity to take their first lead of the day - one they would eventually take when Paxten Aaronson surprised fellow American Richard Ledezma and headed in the 2-1 after 75 minutes.
Turning up the pace after conceding, PSV peppered Utrecht in their own territory but saw their opponent's Greek stopper Barkas play the game of his life, saving a slew of shots and singlehandedly keeping his side in the game.
But even after all his efforts, an extremely late goal would eventually seem to salvage a point for PSV after Isaac Babadi converted a Noa Lang cross in the second minute of added time.
Utrecht got one more golden opportunity to snatch a first win in Eindhoven since 1980, but Miliano Jonathans couldn't finish a massive chance just two minutes after Babadi's equaliser, putting the ball wide in a 1-on-1 with Benitez.
For the fifth time in six league games, PSV dropped points and could see rivals Ajax take the outright lead tomorrow after their home game against Heracles Almelo. FC Utrecht hoped to reduce the gap to PSV to just six points but could drop to fourth later this weekend, depending on results elsewhere.
View all the match statistics on Flashscore.
