Lito Vidigal, the Yellow & Blue’s Head Coach guided his club into the semifinals of the Israel State Cup defeating Maccabi Petah Tikva 2:1, 3:1 on aggregate. The Angolan spoke about how his side performed, the players and the match that was:

“It was a tough game and we’ve played against this team a number of times in a short period of time. The know our team, but most importantly we won the game we moved onto the semifinals. This is how the Cup is and I spoke to the players about this. It’s also not easy to play just three days after the last game.”

Scoring and then giving up a goal:

“This is football. We scored and the next attack they scored too. But we did get a goal and we stayed organized and we had a good mentality. We knew that we needed to win to move on or go home. The players have a lot of experience and they knew how to move ahead.”

Fans as the 12th man:

“We played very well as a team. We are fighting together, they worked a lot and we deserved the victory. Sometimes some players can be the man of the match but most importantly is our 12th man. They gave us everything and when we gave up a goal they supported us. For us they were our best player today.”

Jordi on the bench:

“We are a team and we want to continue to get better. Everyone, from the players, the office staff and everyone else is important to the team. When you are afraid of somethings then maybe you have a problem. But if you do believe in making Maccabi a better club and better team then we all must work together.”

The two new Brazilian players:

“We have a lot of players who don’t play as well. They just arrived about twenty days ago and we have to help them improve and get better.”

Rajikovic and others playing well:

“The four defenders worked a lot and the goalkeeper was also amazing. But so was Vidar, Benayoun who had an amazing game and looked like he was 18 years old.”

Ben Chaim’s yellow card:

“We have to respect all of our opponents and we don’t have any easy games. Every team has quality and we take them very seriously. If you think like that it’s very dangerous.”

Looking ahead to Ashkelon:

“We will prepare for the next opponent and we have to work hard to take the next points against Ashkelon. We respect all of our opponents but we have to do the best against the next team.