Preview

Maccabi Tel Aviv will make their 38th appearance in the State Cup Final as they face Hapoel B’ersheva at Teddy stadium aiming to win the title for the 25th time in the Club’s history.

Three days after the 2025/26 league campaign came to an end with the league title changing hands after two years and heading south, Be’ersheva once again stands between Maccabi and a trophy. A season which began with a Super Cup encounter between the two sides in July that Be’ersheva won 2-1, will come to an end with Maccabi’s 57th match of the entire campaign.

After resting several players in Saturday’s final league match away to Hapoel Petah Tikva, Maccabi’s interim Head Coach Kenny Miller made a host of changes to his starting line up.

Ofek Melika returned to goal with Ali Camara and Tyrese Asante lining up as the two central defenders in front of him. Sagiv Jehezkel at right-back and Roy Revivo at left-back completed Maccabi’s defensive line. Issouf Sisokho was named by Miller in the anchorman role right behind the team’s top goalscorers Ido Shahar and Dor Peretz. On the wings Miller named Helio Varela on the left and Emir Sahiti on the right flank with Saied Abu Farchi leading the attack.

On the bench alongside goalkeeper Roi Mishpati, Miller named Kervin Andrade, Raz Shlomo, Kristijan Belic, Elad Madmon, Noam Ben Harosh, Itamar Noy, Itai Ben Hamo and Osher Davida.

First Half

A sea of colour and a wall of noise welcomed the players at a packed Teddy Stadium split into two with one half yellow and the second red. Maccabi began the match on the front foot and created the first chance in the 5th minute. Emir Sahiti cut inside from the right and switched to the opposite flank where Helio Varela cut onto his right and fired a shot which was palmed away by Be’ersheva’s keeper Ofir Marciano. In the 12th minute however, Be’ersheva broke the deadlock as Kings Kangwa dispossessed Issouf Sissokho before slipping the ball to Mohamad Abu Rumi who kept his calm and rolled the ball past Ofek Melika. Within a minute Melika denied Kangwa from doubling Beersheva’s lead as the keeper was at full stretch to keep out the Zambian’s thunderbolt.

Guy Mizrahi was shown the yellow card by referee David Fuxman for a foul on Roy Revivo in the 29th minute. A minute later Varela burst forward and saw his effort blocked by Mizrahi for a corner. Maccabi came close to level as Dor Peretz headed the resulting Revivo corner wide of the post. In the 38th minute Sagiv Jehezkel was booked as well for a tackle on Amir Ganah.Inside injury time Sissokho picked the ball in the middle of the park and charged forward before being charged down by a Be’ersheva defender. Fuxman gave an advantage and waived play on as the ball reached Saied Abu Farchi whose weak shot was easily collected by Marciano. Peretz was given another chance to score but his header which sailed wide was the final action in the first half.

Second half

Maccabi’s coach Kenny Miller didn’t make any changes for the second half, his Be’ersheva counterpart Ran Kuzukh replaced Mizrahi with Zahi Ahmed at the restart. In the 56th minute Maccabi were back on level terms as the Yellow half of Teddy was up in the air. A pinpoint corner reached Tyrese Asante at the far post before the Dutch defender headed across goal for Varela to nod it home. Two minutes after the hour mark a well drilled free kick routine saw Revivo pick Peretz unmarked at the far post. As Maccabi’s captain sent a glancing close range header, Marciano pulled a stunning reflex save to tip the ball onto the crossbar before catching it at the second attempt. Maccabi’s blitz continued as Revivo completed the comeback on 64 after winning a challenge deep inside Be’ersheva’s half, turned onto his weak right foot and beat swept a shot that beat Marciano to make it 2-1.

Camara was booked for a foul on the edge of the area before Mohamad Kna’an blasted the free kick which was punched away by Melika. Miller added another fresh pair of legs as Kervin Andrade replaced Varela in the 81st minute. Two minutes later Maccabi almost scored the third with a dangerous counter attack which began with a Peretz through ball to Davida whose cross was cleared from the goalmouth preventing Abu Farchi from scoring.

Shortly after the fourth official raised his sign for 7 minutes of added time, Miller sent in Itai Ben Hamo for Jehezkel. Tempers faired as Kangwa and Lukas Ventura run to the Maccabi bench at the end of which Sahiti was shown the red card.

Maccabi Tel Aviv is pleased to announce that 19-year-old midfielder Yoav Junio has signed a new three-year contract, with an option to extend by a further season.

Junio, joined Maccabi’s Youth Academy at the age of 13 and has progressed steadily through the ranks. Over the past three seasons, Junio featured prominently for Maccabi Tel Aviv ‘Shachar’ U19s, scoring 14 goals in 63 appearances in all competitions.

Afte signing his contract, Junio, who played an important role in the team winning the youth championship this season told the club’s official website: “I am proud to be part of the club I joined at the age of 13 and happy to sign a long-term contract at Maccabi. From a young age, I have believed in hard work, and for my part I will continue to do everything I can to keep developing.”

At international level, Junio represented Israel’s U17 and U16 national sides scoring 1 goal in 6 international appearances.

Maccabi Tel Aviv will take on newly crowned champions Hapoel Be’ersheva for the State Cup Final.

Dor Peretz, who will try and lead Maccabi’s charge of winning and lifting the trophy for the first time in five years. At the Press Conference ahead of the final, Peretz, who is the only member of the side that won it previously in the 2020/21 season, spoke about the mental preparations, the lessons from the recent defeat to Be’ersheva last week, and the importance of maintaining focus throughout the match.

“To be part of a Cup Final like this is a privilege, you don’t reach this stage every year.” On how he feels about lifting the trophy, Peretz admitted: “It feels great, I missed it a lot, and we as a team and a club have really missed it. Our biggest goal is to finish with our hands on the cup.”

The 31-year-old analyzed the differences between league matches and a cup final, emphasizing the need for game intelligence: “In matches like these, small mistakes are unacceptable. These are things that can cost you dearly and are hard to recover from. We’ll need to play smart and use our heads, to be intelligent, not just hungry and aggressive.”

Peretz sees the cup as an opportunity: “A title always gives a wonderful feeling. In a challenging and difficult season, I think it would leave us with a sweet taste.” Having conceded one trophy to Be’ersheva losing the Super Cup to on the first match of the campaign, before seeing the league title change hands after two years in Yellow and Blue, Peretz added: “We’re aware of their style of play and their high pressing. In the last match we identified the exact moments where we needed to hurt them, we just didn’t execute strongly enough. If we make a few small improvements in our actions, it will be great.”

On Maccabi’s second half performances which was evident in the second part of the Playoff, Peretz tried explaining: “At times this season we collapsed, and on Tuesday we won’t be able to allow that to happen. A collapse on Tuesday can come from just a few wrong moments, and suddenly the momentum shifts.” He added: “We won’t have the luxury of taking our foot off the gas at any point in the game. All of our energy will need to rise because we understand how important this match is for us.”

The captain remained confident in his teammates as he concluded: “I think this team is excellent and very strong. We’ll need to be very intelligent and smart, maintain our spirit, and do our absolute best.”

“Unfortunately, we had another second half in which we conceded a goal late on and dropped points,” Peretz said shortly after the 2025/26 league campaign ended in a disapointing 2-2 defeat at Petah Tikva. Peretz, who scored a goal in each one of Maccabi’s six outings, said: “It is a symptom that has accompanied us through parts of the Playoff, we start well, but in the end we concede goals and lose results or important matches. We will need to raise our level ahead of Tuesday and understand that we have to put ourselves back in the picture at every stage of the game.”

When asked about the lingering feeling from the league season, the captain said: “There’s a sense of disappointment because we were close to the title several times and stumbled. At the same time, as a club and as a team, we went through a maturation process that I think is ultimately healthy for everyone. We always want to achieve the very best, but it doesn’t always happen that way.”

Peretz, who scored 19 league goals and 22 in all competitions to clinch the league’s top goal-scorer award while playing as a midfielder added: “It is an achievement for me and something that is far from trivial in any respect. We don’t see this often in world football, and I’m very happy. I think that even in my imagination I didn’t believe it was possible, but my family and my wife pushed me and made it clear to me that it was within reach. Today it was obvious that my teammates wanted it for me just as much as I wanted it myself. Everyone wanted it for me. Hopefully in the future it will also lead to team titles.”

On the improvement he has showed this season, the 31-year-old added: “I always work on the things I need to improve. In previous seasons I scored similar numbers as well, but this season the number of league goals was significantly higher than in past seasons.”

The Maccabi captain is already focused on the next and final mission of the season, the State Cup Final against Hapoel Be’er Sheva: “We understand how important this match is. After a season with feelings of disappointment and missed opportunities, we have a chance to correct those feelings. We want to come and bring a trophy for the fans who come to every match, and for the club that gives its best every single day. It’s one match for a title, and we’ll be there”.

Preview

Maccabi arrived at the Petah Tikva stadium ahead of the WINNER League MD36 encounter against local side Hapoel for a match which will conclude the 2025/26 league campaign. On the back of two defeats 1-2 to Beitar Jerusalem at Bloomfield and 2-4 to Hapoel Be’ersheva at Turner, Maccabi will finish the season in third place regardless of the outcome of the match against sixth placed Petah Tikva. But, three days before facing newly crowned Champions Be’ersheva in the State Cup Final at Teddy stadium, interim Head Coach Kenny Miller will try guide his side back to winning ways. With the Cup Final in mind, Miller made several changes to his starting line-up resting some of his players after a long and hectic campaign. Roi Mishpati made his first start in goal since the State Cup Semi Final victory over Maccabi Haifa in mid-April. Raz Shlomo and Heitor dos Santos lined up as the two central defenders in front of Mishpati while Itai Ben Hamo and Noam Ben Harosh started at right and left back respectively. At the heart of midfield, Ben Lederman, made his first start since the Cup victory over Maccabi Jaffa in February and his 19th appearance in all competitions. Itamar Noy made his 30th league appearance and 46th in all competitions this season in Maccabi’s engine room. Dor Peretz who scored in Maccabi’s last five outings to take his tally to 18 league goals which already guaranteed the top scorer award together with Kiryat Shmona’s Adrian Ugarriza was named by Miller at the top of the midfield trio. Kervin Andrade, the scored one of the goals at Turner in midweek, was named on one wing with Elad Madmon on the opposite flank. Yonas Malede made his first start of the season and ninth appearance in total as the 26-year-old forward led the attack aiming to add to the goal he scored this season against Bnei Sakhnin in February.

On the substitutes bench alongside goalkeeper Ofek Melika, Miller named: Roy Revivo, Tyrese Asante, Sagiv Jehezkel, Kristijan Belic, Saied Abu Farchi, Ido Shahar, Emir Sahiti and Osher Davida.

First half

The afternoon sun and some 4500 travelling Maccabi fans welcomed both set of players onto the pitch for a match that had no real effect on the table. Right from the start the two sides were geared up for an open game of football. Two minutes from the start Elad Madmon carried a counterattack down the right before squaring for Ben Lederman whose shot was turned for a corner by Petah Tikva’s keeper Amit Mashiah. From the resulting corner Maccabi took the lead as Raz Shlomo rose above Petah Tikva’s defense to head in Itamar Noy’s cross. In the 13th minute Petah Tikva were awarded a penalty after Lederman was judged to have tripped Shavit Mazal in the box before VAR called referee Idan Leiba to the screen to review his initial decision. Yonatan Cohen stepped up, sent Roi Mishpati the wrong way and leveled the score on 15. A minute later at the opposite end, Kervin Andrade cushioned the ball for Dor Peretz whose shot sailed high over the crossbar. Andrade had another shot within a minute, but the Venezuelan midfielder also couldn’t direct his shot on target.

Maccabi continued to push forward as a Madmon shot come cross needed a Mashiah hand together with his crossbar to turn the ball for a corner. Shlomo almost repeated his goal from the resulting corner as he headed Noy’s cross but with Mashiah beaten the Maccabi defender was denied by the crossbar. Yonas Melede was booked in the 25th minute for a foul on Petah Tikva’s Matan Gosha before the Maccabi forward blasted a shot over two minutes later. Maccabi enjoyed most of the possession but didn’t put Mashiah under any serious threat. In the 44th minute Lederman tried another left foot drive that narrowly cleared the crossbar.

Second half

With no changes to either side at the restart Maccabi began the second half where they left off – pressing forward to try and score. Two minutes after the restart a Madmon toe poke was blocked for a corner which was cleared by Petah Tikva’s defense. Mishpati was called into action in the 55th minute as he was at full stretch to keep out a Noam Cohen’s shot from inside the area.

A minute later Maccabi’s defense was exposed to a Petah Tikva counterattack, but Shavit Mazal with the goal at his mercy failed to connect onto Yonatan Cohen’s square ball which rolled across the face of goal. Petah Tikva enjoyed a good spell as Mazal blasted a shot which missed the target. At the opposite end Andrade waisted an Itai Ben Hamo pinpoint cross as he sent his volley high over the crossbar. Kenny Miller reacted with a double substitution on the hour mark as Lederman and Malede bowed out and were replaced by Ido Shahar and Emir Sahiti. Maccabi responded almost instantly as Madmon won a tackle deep inside Petah Tikva’s half before slipping the ball to Peretz who finished clinically and restored Maccabi’s lead. The Maccabi captain took his tally to 19 league goals and celebrated with the fans who gave him a standing ovation on 68 as he was replaced by Krsitijan Belic. Miller introduced two more substitutes as Roy Revivo and Osher Davida replaced Noam Ben Harosh and Andrade in the 75^th minute.

Nine minutes later however the hosts were back on level terms as the ball fell to Mamady Diarra on the edge box before the Petah Tikva substitute beat Mishpati to make it 2-2. Inside added time Madmon rifled a volley over the crossbar before Mishpati pulled a spectacular save to keep out an Orel Baye dangerous effort which was making its way into the top corner. The full time whistle saw Maccabi’s players and staff head to the fans and thank them for their support during the season as attention now turns to Tuesday’s State Cup Final against Hapoel Be’ersheva at Teddy stadium.