Ido Shahar scored his 8th league goal and 15th in all competitions this season as Maccabi recorded their 16 victory of the season.
Shahar, a product of Maccabi’s Youth Academy who played at the Under 19 side which is named after Shahar Brickman sent his condolences to the Brickman family following the death of former Maccabi chairman Gideon Brickman who passed away last week. “I would like to send my condolences to the Brickman family on Gideon’s passing. Everyone knows what kind of person he was for Maccabi. I hope we managed to give them a little bit of comfort” Shahar said after the match.
The midfielder who dedicated his goal to Ido Daniel (RIP), a Maccabi fans who died from cancer last month, wore a shirt with his picture, explained: “Ido Daniel was an amazing kid from Kibbutz Kfar Menachem. His family and he were Maccabi fans. I visited them during the shiva and received so much strength and a feeling that’s hard to explain. Even when he didn’t leave the house, the only place he would go to was Bloomfield, and those two hours of escape meant everything to him. I promised the family I would make a small gesture for them.”
On Maccabi’s convincing victory on the night, Shahar said:
“We had a big victory. To be honest, we lifted that cloud over us, that until the start of the playoffs we hadn’t beaten any big team. I’m happy we’re on a good run. We feel good as a team. We’re still in third place, eight points behind, that’s a lot. We need to stay focused and do the job match by match.”
As Maccabi moved within six points from Beitar Jerusalem and eight behind leaders Hapoel Be’ersheva that arrive at Bloomfield on Tuesday, Shahar said: “You should never write off Maccabi, but I understand why people think that way because of the gap. We still have a lot to play for, we want to make the fans happy. There’s a cup final, and in the league we’ll do everything as long as there’s a chance. We hope to make the fans happy again in the match against Be’ersheva on Tuesday.”
