Ido Shahar completed a man-of-the-match performance as he scored two goals and assisted another as Maccabi beat Maccabi Netanya 5-1 on Monday. The 22-year-old said at the end of the match: “The feelings are amazing, I waited a long time and worked really hard for this.” Shahar said: “Even when you are playing less you can take it in two ways a positive or a negative one. I am here in every training session with some great players and while I wasn’t getting any minutes, I told myself that I need to learn from these professionals which is exactly what I did”.
Shahar, who received an assist from Eran Zahavi for his second and Maccabi’s fifth, added: “It is a great privilege to play and train alongside a player of Eran’s caliber. Even in training when I am moving deep, I knew he will find me. Eran has an amazing ability and I am delighted he managed to find me today and help me score.”
With Zahavi on the bench in the first half, Shahar, took the penalty and scored early on, as he revealed: “Two weeks ago after the Toto Cup final I had a chat with Robbie Keane and he told me that he wanted to bring me on for the penalty shoot out but it didn’t happen in the end. I am feeling really confident at taking penalties as this is something I did last season whilst playing for Limassol in Cyprus.”
On the team bouncing back to go level on points with Maccabi Haifa and ahead of Saturday’s match against Hapoel Be’ersheva, Shahar summed-up: “I think the little break we received did everyone here good. Today the fans pushed us in an amazing way, and raised the stadium. We need to continue this momentum and I hope that against Be’ersheva we will continue with our amazing fans.”
