Maccabi Tel Aviv were eliminated from the Toto Cup Tournament after falling to Bnei Yehuda 3:1, away at Bloomfield Stadium. The Yellow-and-Blue played with primarily a youth squad for the match, starting four players from the Under-21 side plus another four who rounded out the team for the match. The coach, Slavisa jokanovich, explained his reasoning following the game and spoke about how the team played:
“Bnei Yehuda scored an easy goal early on in the game and our opponent was better than us, however we did play as a team. In the second half it was difficult for us to come back and change the situation we were already in. It’s our obligation to play hard but the team is just not built for four competitions. The schedule is tight and it’s not normal to play two matches within 48 hours”.
“I’m not content with the result but I am happy that we played as a team and we did many things on the pitch that showed this. I played with a number of youth players and they were commendable, the kids did a fine job. We moved around a few players into different roles but like I said before we played positively and together as a team.”
