Itamar Noy who joined Maccabi from Hapoel Haifa in the summer and has since made 11 appearances in all competitions played a key role in the victory over Hapoel Jerusalem. The 24-year-old whose injury time cross was headed in by Ali Camara to secure a dramatic 2-1 victory at Bloomfield, said: “Our goal is to decide the game earlier, to be dominant from the start. We are confident it won’t be easy and we will need to give 100%. The transition from Europe is not always simple, but we have a test and we need to pass it by showing our best ability.”
Noy, who for the first time of his career is getting used to playing in Europe, added: “It was clear to us from the start of the season that this would be the situation, and the squad was built accordingly. We can’t use it as an excuse, and we need to prove already tomorrow that it doesn’t affect us, and win the game.”
On settling in at Maccabi, Noy added: “I feel very good, I feel that I’m learning and improving every day. I was fortunate to join a club where I can make progress every day. The players are amazing, the framework is excellent, and I just want us to have a great season and achieve all of our goals.”
With Maccabi’s next Europa League match against Dinamo Zagreb set to take place right after Yom Kippur, Noy said: “It’s a burden, no doubt, but right now it’s still distant. If we don’t win in Sakhnin, then it’s worthless. All the focus is on Sakhnin, and afterward we’ll deal with what’s needed.”
Three days after Noy and his teammates experienced an unusual atmosphere against PAOK at the famous Toumba stadium in Thessaloniki, he said: “The atmosphere was special, truly a unique stadium, not the friendliest environment. We really wanted to win there and bring pride, unfortunately it didn’t work out. We hope to achieve better results moving forward and bring a lot of pride to our fans.”
