The Maccabi Tel Aviv Captain, Gal Alberman came onto the Netanya Stadium pitch in the 82nd minute which marked his 50th appearance in European tournaments. Number 6 looked back at the campaign that was while looking ahead to league play and Hapoel Haifa on Sunday, 20:15 at Sammy Ofer Stadium:

“We feel like it was a missed opportunity as we were very close to advancing to the Round of 32 but we didn’t do enough and that’s too bad. We wanted to really get to the next round and try to put some of the poor play that we’ve had recently in the league behind us. We’re disappointed but we’re also content that we won and I hope that we can bring the positives from this game with us into league action as we have to start collecting points.”

Taking the positives:

“There was a change in the atmosphere around the club and the team we played against took the game to a higher level. We have to take those good points from this contest to the Israeli league now and continue forward.”

Criticism:

“We haven’t paid attention to the critics and we knew that when we would have a down time they would come, which is legitimate. We know that we have to improve in the league and start to pick up points. We lost points recently and our level of play was not as good as we have to play more attractive football. We can’t look to far ahead and our goals right now have to be improving in league play and start getting those points.”

Facing Hapoel Haifa on Sunday:

“We have to come into this contest organized and ready to go. It will not be an easy game but we will have to be prepared and bring the energy that we did against Dundalk which we haven’t brought recently into league games. It will be a difficult match.”