The two teams are level on points going into the final game of the season but it is Ajax who lead the way on goal difference. PSV travel to Zwolle while Ajax are at De Graafschap.

Ahead of the decisive weekend in his native Holland, we caught up with Van Ginkel. The 23-year-old is approaching the end of a thoroughly successful spell at PSV, who he joined on loan at the end of the winter transfer window. He spent the first half of the 2015/16 campaign gaining valuable Premier League experience with Stoke, and, as he explains, it's been an important season in his development…





First of all Marco, how’s everything going in Holland?

It’s all good thanks. I’m close to my family and close to my friends which is always nice. The club is cool with lots of nice people around so I am enjoying it.

At the moment we are level on points with Ajax with one game left. It’s very exciting. Hopefully they drop some points because their goal difference is a bit better.

You played every minute of PSV’s epic Champions League tie with Atletico Madrid, only narrowly losing out on penalties to a team that has now reached the final…

It was a nice experience. I played once in the Champions League for Chelsea, against Basel. These games were the last 16, so big games, and I think we did very well against one of the top teams in Europe. As you can see even now they are still in the tournament and winning games against teams like Barcelona and Bayern Munich. We lost on penalties which was obviously a disappointment but in the end we could be proud of how we did.

Normally Chelsea are playing a lot of games in the Champions League and other important games where there is pressure to win so as a young player it was good to play in those big games.

You scored twice last weekend meaning you now have eight goals in 14 games since your move to Holland. What’s been the secret?

At the moment I am playing a little bit further forward than I have played with my previous clubs and I can get in front of the goal more. That’s what I like, to score goals and be important for the team.

And you have taken and scored a couple of high-pressure shoot-out penalties too recently, one for Stoke at Anfield and then against Atletico…

I remember I took one in pre-season for Stoke which I missed so there was a bit of pressure of course in the semi-finals of the League Cup against Liverpool. I took the sixth penalty so if you miss then you know it will be a big mess! But I scored and that was a good feeling.

Then against Atletico I chose to take the first one and I scored again and all the pressure went on to the other players!