Avi Rikan has been a centerpiece of Head Coach’s Slavisa Jokanovic team since Maccabi Tel Aviv acquired him during the summer from Zurich and proved once again against Hapoel in the 1:0 win his importance to the club. He talked about playing in his first League Derby, alongside goalscorer Carlos Garcia and looked ahead to the Champions League:

“I also won a Derby in the Toto Cup but I felt the love from the people around the club over the last few days and how important it is. As a player participating in my first league Derby it’s fun but it was a tough game and it was headed for a 0:0 result but we won and it was great to win the first one.”

More on the match and shutout:

“I believe that if you work hard the whole game and you do what you should do, good things will happen if it’s from a set piece or by another fashion. We didn’t play a big game and neither did Hapoel but we are happy we didn’t give up a goal especially after giving up four goals last match. We’ll keep improving and smile right now but in a few days we have another game.”

On Carlos Garcia:

“I played with him on Monday and he was so upset. He’s a serious guy, works so hard and it’s fun to play by his side. I’m not playing my natural position but he gives me a lot of help. You can only keep learning from him and I’m so thrilled that he scored the goal.”

The past week:

“I’m here for three months and have experienced so many things from the advancing to the Champions League to changing positions, there are just so many things going on. I’m learning every day and it wasn’t an easy week but we have many matches ahead of us.”

Porto’s coming to Israel this week:

“Having some big teams coming to Israel is a great feeling and the fans enjoy it as well during the days leading up to the match and the game itself. We didn’t play poorly last Champions League match and we were kind of shell shocked the first couple of games but we have started to play better and we have three games left with the first coming up on Wednesday.”