Shota Arveladze, the Yellow & Blue boss discussed the upcoming Europa League third round second leg qualifying match against Pandurii. Last week, Maccabi defeated the Romanian outfit 3:1 in Drobeta-Turnu Severin on goals by Tal Ben Chaim, Dor Micha and Nosa Igiebior. The Georgian talked about the club’s play, what he’s learned about playing in Israel, the team’s goals and the upcoming match:
“The Romanians always have a good level, either the league or national team. If they don’t win it doesn’t mean they are bad. After the first goal last week we thought it would be an easy game but they ended up giving us a hard time. We have an advantage, that’s for sure and we feel good, but I want to see us play our best game to gain our confidence and we need to win in order to get to the next round. The league will be upon us soon and the Toto Cup is going on. We want to play our best game with our best team.”
On preparing his team for the match ahead:
“I have my own thoughts and things to do as to how to prepare my team. That’s exactly what I’ll do.”
Current goals and objectives:
“Every competition that we play in we want to do our best. That is Maccabi’s goal all of the time. The Toto Cup ends in December, the League Cup starts later so right now advancing to Europe is our target. We are fully focussed on this but we aren’t there yet. Football is hard and we have some tough weeks to come.”
Players who may be coming or going and how it may affect the team:
“We are playing with our best team and with our best players. I have to make a choice out of 20 some odd players who the best 11 are. I’m not looking ahead to what will be the next 24 hours but the transfer window is always open. This is football.”
About Shlomi Azoulay’s conditioning:
“The conditioning comes with the games and he trains hard every day. He’s a professional and is doing what he needs to.”
Getting into shape:
“The boys are getting in shape and the weather is not great, but they are gaining their tempo and they are improving. Their conditioning is getting better game by game. Younger players may have some ups and downs, but when you get older you have more experience as to how and play.”
Playing football in Israel:
“You have to let the ball run longer than you run because you may have a hard time with the heat.”
The defensive side of the club’s game:
“Everyone wants a clean sheet but as a team we want to score more. We are concentrating on that and we are an offense team. We will continue to get better defensively.”
Last but not least:
“I want to wish Hapoel Beer Sheva good luck in their Champions League qualifying match.”
