“We gave everything until the last second” Piven said, “I am proud of my teammates, proud of the fans and the coaching staff that pushed us all the way until the final moment. We tried to give everything but still we have a crucial match that could end this season with a sweet taste and make it a really glorious season. We must recover quickly, leave the disappointment behind us and focus on the most important match of our season”.

The 24-year-old captain paid tributes to the title contenders who were fierce rivals throughout the season as well as the State Cup Final against Hapoel Tel Aviv: “I would like to congratulate Maccabi Haifa. They had an amazing season and deserve it after 10 years. We still have one very important target o Wednesday as we prepare to come and eat the pitch”.

Pre Match

Maccabi Tel Aviv arrived at the final league match of the season knowing that only a victory against Kiryat Shmona at Bloomfield together with a Maccabi Haifa slip-up at home against Hapoel Be’ersheva could leave them a chance of retaining the championship.

With 74 points from a possible 35 matches, Maccabi entered the final league round trailing the league leaders by two points in the table. Four days after the 2-1 victory away to Ashdod in the league and three days before the State Cup Final against Hapoel Tel Aviv – Maccabi’s coach Patrick van Leeuwen made five changes to his side.

Daniel Tenenbaum who didn’t miss a single minute during the entire season, made his 55th start in all competitions as the 26-year-old Brazilian born custodian started in goal. Eytan Tibi stepped in for Matan Baltaxa as the defensive partner of Louis Hernandez while Andre Geraldes and Enric Saborit completed the back four on the right and left respectively. Dan Glazer returned to the heart of midfield for the suspended Dor Peretz with Sheran Yeini taking up the second anchorman role allowing Dan Biton to push slightly forward. Upfront Van Leeuwen made three changes as Matan Hozez, Eduardo Gurrero and Nick Blackman who all made substitute appearances at Ashdod, were given a chance to start the match.

Etey Shechter and Tal Ben Chaim dropped to the bench waiting to make their mark together with Baltaxa, Eden Karzev, Eylon Almog, Ofir Davidzada, Shahar Piven and Yonatan Cohen.

First Half

Boosted by the support of 20,412 fans at Bloomfield, Maccabi began the match on the front foot in a bid to score an early goal. Five minutes after the start a counter attack down the right channel saw Andre Geraldes and Eduardo Guerrero exchange passes before the Portuguese full-back sent a dangerous cross that was collected by Dziugas Bartkus.

In the 10th minute Nick Blackman quickly turned to create himself some space but his long range effort didn’t trouble the Kiryat Shmona keeper. Dan Biton sent Matan Hozez with a through ball that was cleared by Kiryat Shmona’s defense for a corner that Guerrero headed goal-bound only to force Bartkus to stretch himself and save.

Hozez was sent into the area once again on 15, this time by Dan Glazer, only to see a last gasp tackle by a Kiryat Shmona defender block the shot for a corner. Three minutes later however, Biton broke the deadlock in spectacular style as the diminutive winger unleashed a powerful long range left foot shot that rocketed past Bartkus and set Bloomfield stadium alight.

Maccani were given a golden chance to double the score in the 24th minute as a Guerrero’s cut-back found Biton who teed-up Hozez only to see the pacey forward fail to connect. A minute after the half hour mark Daniel Tenenbaum was called into the action as Eugene Ansah’s powerful shot rattled his post.

Biton, grabbed his second and doubled Maccabi’s lead on 39 at the end of a brilliant move he began by dribbling into the box, exchanging of passes with Guerrero before squeezing the ball under Bartkus.

Second Half

Kiryat Shmona made a change after the break as Guy Ben Lulu was replaced by Michael Amanga who received a standing ovation from the Maccabi fans for the goal he scored against Haifa last week.

The visitors cut the deficit on 53 as Lucio exploited a mistake in Maccabi’s defense before sending a powerful left foot shot into the top corner giving Tenenbaum no chance.

Van Leeuwen made a triple change as Shahar Piven, Ofir Davidzada and Eylon Almog replaced Sheran Yeini, Enric Saborit and Matan Hozez shortly before the hour mark.

In the 72nd minute Maccabi came close to increase their lead as Almog’s trickery saw him beat a defender before teeing-up Piven who flashed his shot wide. Yonatan Cohen replaced the tired Guerrero on 74 as the forward who recently recovered from an injury was given 16 minutes to get precious playing minutes.

Maccabi totally dominated the play as Biton and Almog toyed with the visitors’ defense only to see Cohen blast his shot high and wide on 79. Four minutes later, Blackman was sent clear and had his initial shot saved by Bartkus before Cohen’s attempt to reach the rebound was blocked.

In the 87th minute Eden Karzev became the fifth substitute on the night as the he replaced Dan Glazer who played with a bleeding cut above his eye from the first half.

When it seemed as though the victory was only seconds away, yet the fans who knew it wasn’t enough to win the league were singing ahead of Wednesday’s Cup Final – Kiryat Shmona grabbed their equalizer.  

Ori Dahan rose high to head a corner across the face of Maccabi’s goal and into the path of Ansah who silenced Bloomfield with a close range equalizer that settled the score at 2-2.

Liran Liani’s full-time whistle saw the Maccabi players walk around the ground thanking the fans for their support and receive gratitude for their efforts throughout the season. On Wednesday, the same scenes could be emulated yet with a different ending as Bloomfield stadium will stage the State Cup Final.

 

 

“As far as we are concerned everything is still wide open, we will arrive at Bloomfield stadium and do our job” Baltaxa said. With a two-point deficit from the summit, the left sided central defender who knows that only a Maccabi victory together with a Haifa slip-up could lead to a dramatic end of a season, remained hopeful: “We will focus on ourselves and whatever needs to happen will happen. It is no longer in our hands, but I believe that just like people didn’t give us much of a chance ahead of the Maccabi Haifa game, anything can happen at the other match”.

On his first ever call-up to the Israel national team, Baltaxa added: “I was extremely excited by the call-up, but I am focused on the two important matches we still have to play. This is a dream of every kid making his first footballing footsteps, so now I can tick that box, but from here making progress is the next step as I still have many targets to achieve”.

Eduardo Guerrero continued his run of good form after scoring Maccabi’s first goal at Ashdod on the way to a 2-1 victory.

The Panamanian forward scored his seventh league goal, five of which in the Playoffs.

 Guerrero entered an impressive list of Maccabi players who scored five goals or more in the top Playoff. Uri Malmilian (1990), Itzik Zohar and Avi Cohen ‘Jerusalem’ (1992), Avi Nimni (2001) and Eran Zahavi (2012/13, 2013/14, 2014/15, 2015/16) during all of his four seasons at Maccabi.

Zahavi (2014) and Zohar (1992) hold the record number of goals scored in the Playoff with 11 goals each.

The victory at Ashdod last night left Teddy stadium as the only ground this season Maccabi failed to record a league victory from the nine venues they were hosted at following the 0-0 draw against Beitar Jerusalem.

Only three times in history Maccabi recorded victories in all of the stadiums in the league: 1950 (10 grounds), 1952 (8 grounds) and 1992 (all 11 grounds).

Saborit’s 120^th appearance

Last night was Enric Saborit’s 120^th appearance for Maccabi in all competitions.

The 29-year-old Spaniard who joined Maccabi ahead of the 2018/19 season has a record of: 78 victories, 29 draws and 12 defeats.

Saborit, who only lost 3 league matches in 91 appearances managed to score 7 goals and assist 10 others in all of 120 appearances.

  

“Athletes must arrive to win every match regardless of how difficult it might be.”, said Peretz, “This is what we came to do and gladly the result elsewhere was in our favor and cheered us up” the midfielder added.

Peretz who will miss next week’s final league match against Kiryat Shmona as he serves a one-match touchline-ban due to yellow cards revealed some of the feelings in the camp: “Money time. It certainly feels like the money-time. Those are the final moments that we must show up in all our glory, and we will do what we are capable of doing”