Dor Peretz must have wished to begin his first season as Maccabi Tel Aviv’s captain by lifting the Super Cup in front of a packed Bloomfield stadium. But instead, the 30-year-old midfielder was forced to stand by the side of the pitch and watch how Hapoel Be’ersheva won the first title of the 2025/26 season. Be’ersheva were reduced to 10 men from the 16th minute yet took the lead from an Eliel Peretz shot that took a wicked deflection off Raz Shomo. Weslley Patati scored a spectacular equalizer but another former Maccabi player, Eylon Almog scored the winner that also ended Maccabi’s hopes of advancing to the Semi Final of the Toto Cup. “It is hard to explain how it happened” Peretz said after the match. “We will need to analyze it, see what we did well and what we didn’t do so well. We lost the Super Cup, credit to Be’ersheva, who managed to beat us here at Bloomfield with 10 men.”
On the goal Nemanja Stojic scored which was disallowed, Peretz said: “The hand was very close to the body in the replay. But that was the referee’s decision, and I have no complaints. We will focus on what we can do on the pitch and do our best.”
After officially taking over the captaincy from Eran Zahavi, Peretz was asked on the absence of the veteran striker: “I miss him right now. But we have a new dressing room here, new players, new roles that players need to fill. We will try to lead the team into a new and good season. I hope we succeed.”
