Maccabi Tel Aviv registered yet another win on Saturday as they beat Maccabi Netanya 1-0 in the final regular season fixture before the playoffs.
The league leaders have opened up a nine-point gap at the top of the standings ahead of second-placed Maccabi Haifa, who host Hapoel Beersheba on Sunday, but the performance in Netanya was one of the defending champions’ worst of the season, according to coach Vladimir Ivic.
“This was the worst game we have had,” Ivic said after the final whistle. “We can only take the points from this game because for most of the time we did not show the Maccabi spirit. We were poor in possession and were not good in trying to win the ball. We will have to be professional as we look ahead.”
Ivic said the game, in general, was not good although he said it was difficult to immediately analyse what went wrong.
“I will talk to my players later because if we continue in this vein it will not be good,” he added.
