Maccabi Tel Aviv beat Hamrun Spartans 2-1 this evening (Tuesday) in the first of a two leafed tie in the Europa League qualifying round. After the match, both goal scorers summed up the first of the two encounters.
Roy Revivo whose 79th minute goal canceled Hamrun’s lead which was scored in the 71st minute spoke of the team’s performance:
“I don’t think their penalty was what woke us up. We need to come into the game more focused and more prepared right from the start. But that is football, sometimes you just need to find a way to win.”
The 22-year-old left-back described his goal:
“I tried to block for Dor (Turgeman) and felt I needed to drop back as the ball fell to my feet. I was ready, and thank God I scored.”
To sum things up Revivo highlighted the fact the job isn’t done yet:
“It was a tough match in every sense. Like I said, sometimes you just have to win against all odds. Always believe, that’s all.”
Elad Madmon, who scored the winning goal, shared his thoughts at the final whistle: “It doesn’t really matter, we came here to do a job. We didn’t do it all that well, and there’s a lot to improve. We will analyze everything and see how we can come more prepared for the next game. We haven’t advanced yet, and we’ll have to give everything.”
The forward, who also scored a dramatic goal in the first leg against Pafos, spoke about the opportunity he nissed in the return leg against the Cypriots: “It stayed with me. I’m very self-critical. With things like that, you have to lift your head and believe you’ll get another chance. Because I didn’t put my head down, it came, and I gave the team a breather ahead of the next match.”
On tonight’s winning goal, he added: “I think all three of us knew exactly what the move would be the moment we got the ball. The chemistry between the three of us is really strong, we’re good friends, and each of us believes in the others. When we reached the final minutes, we believed we were going to win, no matter what.”
Madman then shared what makes this team special: “There are a lot of special things about this team, especially the dressing room, which is really united. As long as we stay together, we can do anything. We need to keep going and not stop.”
