Dor Turgeman celebrated his comeback from injury and on his 21st birthday scored a consolation goal in the Europa League 2-1 defeat to Real Sociedad in Belgrade. Turgeman, who was sidelined since suffering an injury last month away to Sporting Braga, made a second half substitute and scored an 81st minute header, said at the end: “I am delighted the coach brought me on after a month absence, showed faith in me even for the final 15 minutes and I am happy to have scored. Now this is already behind us and we are looking forward to Monday’ league match against Beitar Jerusalem.”
Although Turgeman’s goal cut the deficit to leave Maccabi with a chance of snatching an equalizer in the closing stages, that wasn’t enough to help the team collect their first point of the league phase: “I am happy to have scored and thought we could even level the score but it wasn’t meant to be, we lost as this is football.”
On his comeback after being sidelined for almost a month, Turgeman said: “It wasn’t frustrating as I knew I will not start or play too much but I was ready to come on against a top Spanish team.”
Ahead of Monday’s league match away to high flying Beitar Jerusalem, Turgeman concluded: “Our sights are already on Monday’s match as we expect the atmosphere at the stadium to be amazing with our fans and theirs. We will be after collecting all three points”.