“This is the first hat-trick of my career and it’s a great feeling,” Peretz said. “To do it here, after last season which was truly special, it’s a great feeling to start the season this way.”
Maccabi could have imagined a worse start to theot league campaign as tbey found themselvs trailing inside the opening minute against Hapoel Jerusalem. But a Roy Revivo equaliser a Dor Peretz hat-trick and another goal by Saied Abu Farchi who also replaced a sent off Ofek Melika in goal helped Maccabi to a 5-2 victory: “I hope we stop conceding easy goals” Peretz said at the end of the eventful match at Rehovot. “We talk about it a lot. It’s a team effort, it’s not just the defence, all of us need to work much harder on it so that we can start matches on level terms rather than having to fall behind and chase the game.”
Despite conceding early, Maccabi pulled an impressive comeback on the way to win the match. “We managed to recover and get back into the game very quickly,” Peretz added. “The first half was a little tired and lacked energy, but in the second half we saw a much hungrier and much more aggressive team, and thankfully the result was excellent.”
The 31-year-old midfielder who last season scored a total of 22 goals in all competitions, began the 2026/27 league campaign with a hat-trick to take his tally to 6 goals in seven matches.
On the influence of his coach Kenny Miller, Peretz said: “He tells me and guides me, and of course he has every right to, he was a great striker, and you can see that in the finishing drills in training that he runs. I have a certain role when he’s on the touchline and I’m grateful for that. I really enjoy it. At the same time, I also have defensive responsibilities to help the team and do everything I can at the other end so that we concede fewer goals and keep going like this.”
Despite the victories, the team has also faced criticism recently, as Peretz said: “At the end of the day, we lost, and the defeat to CSKA was a heavy one. To lose 3-0 in a game in which we didn’t play badly and concede three goals out of nothing, that was a serious blow for us. I think that’s why the criticism is justified and why there are those feelings, because even though we’ve won quite a few games this season, it still hurts. But that’s okay. We’re focused on our path, we know what we’re doing and what we’re capable of.”
On Thursday, Maccabi face the crucial return leg against Lugano, trailing 2-1 from the first match in Switzerland.
“We really need to be at our best,” the captain said ahead of the decisive encounter in Batumi. “At the same time, we’ll need to play intelligently and use the intelligence each one of us has. If we lose the game in the opening minutes, that would be unnecessary. It’s a long game, and if we know how to control it and steer it in the direction we want, we’ll do it.”
