The 26-year-old midfielder who joined Maccabi in the summer from Standard Liege, said: “I think that if we do what we need to do, everything will be ok. We needed the 3 points against Haifa, it gave us a boost which we must take and use it for our future matches”.

Shamir, who spent six months at Be’ersheva before moving to Belgium, added: “I knew that competition here (at Maccabi) is tough, all of my teammates who are competing with me for a place are quality players, so I must be at my best on a daily basis. I was prepared for that as this is something which typifies a big club”.