Maccabi Tel Aviv and Zorya Luhansk reached an agreement which will see Eduardo Guerrero join the Ukrainian outfit on loan until the end of the 2022/23 season with an option to make the move permanent.

The 23-year-old Panamanian forward who joined the club at the age of 17 and scored 10 goals in 53 appearances for Maccabi’s senior side. During loan spells at Hapoel and Beitar Jerusalem, Guerrero scored 2 goals in 26 appearances in all competitions.           

 

 

Preview

Maccabi arrived at the Petah Tikva stadium for the MD24 ONE ZERO League encounter with newly promoted side Sektzia Ness Ziona on the back of the dramatic 1-0 victory over Hapoel Be’ersheva last week. Aitor Karnaka’s charges were aiming to string a back-to-back victory for the first time since December 24th, the same date that bottom of the table Ness Ziona who suffered four straight defeats, recorded their last victory.

Karanka made two changes from the side which beat Be’ersheva as Derrick Luckassen, Nir Bitton and Enric Saborit were named as the three central defenders in front of goalkeeper Daniel Peretz. Andre Gerlades who scored his senior debut goal against Be’ersheva, kept his place on the right with Ofir Davidzada named on the opposite left flank of the unchanged defence.

In midfield Karanka made two changes with Dor Peretz and Gabi Kanichowsky stepping-in for Eyal Golasa and Parfait Guiagon to join Dan Glazer. Upfront, Karanka stuck with his striking partnership of Eran Zahavi and Djordje Jovanovic hoping to see the duo add to their tally which so far resulted with 38 goal in all competitions.

With Daniel Tenenbaum still recovering from his back injury, Karnaka named Or Yitzhak on the bench as cover, with Dan Biton, Rares Ilie, Parfait Guiagon, Avi Rikan, Eyal Golasa, Maor Kandil, Shahar Piven, Dor Turgeman and Dor Peretz.

First Half

Backed by more than 10,000 Maccabi fans at the Petah Tikva stadium, Aitor Karanka’s charges came close to draw first blood as early as the 7th minute. Gabi Kanichowsky carved Ness Ziona’s defence open as he sent a through ball towards Eran Zahavi but Yossi Ginzburg charged out of his box to prevent the Maccabi skipper from breaking the deadlock. With Maccabi struggling to break through the hosts’ defence, Nir Bitton attempted a long-range effort in the 19th minute which was blocked by a Ness Ziona defender. 

In the 28th minute, a Kanichowsky dangerous cross was cleared at the goalmouth by Ginzburg and Dor Kochav before Djordje Jovanovic could tuck the ball home. A minute later Zahavi miscued his shot from inside the area wide of the target with Jovanovic attempting to reach the ball and direct it towards goal. A minute after the half-hour-mark however, nothing could prevent Jovanovic from scoring as the Serbian forward was released by Dor Peretz and despite Ginzburg’s touch, the ball rolled in at the far post.

Maccabi’s blitz continued in the 40th minute as Jovanovic doubled the lead in spectacular fashion. Enric Saborit curled a pinpoint cross from the left and Jovanovic guided his header past Ginzburg to score his 13th league goal and 20th in all competitions.

Second Half

Despite the two goal lead at halftime, Aitor Karanka made a triple change at the restart as Maor Kandil replaced Andre Geraldes, Eyal Golasa came in for Dan Glazer while Parfait Guiagon replaced Dor Peretz for the restart. Three minutes later Guiagon carried a counter attack from the middle before sliding the ball to Jovanovic whose cut back to Zahavi saw the skipper on the night drag his shot wide.

Jovanovic came close to to score his hatrick on 52 as his diagonal shot from inside the area was equalled by Gonzburg on his goal line. Two minutes later, Guiagon managed to roll the ball past the advancing Gonzburg but the goal was cancelled as the Ivorian was caught offside. 

Maccabi continued to push forward as Kanichowsky carved Ness Ziona’s defence open on 61 with a perfect through ball for Zahavi who sent his shot agonisingly wide. Two minutes later the hosts must have thought they managed to cut the deficit as Dor Kochav headed in a deflected shot past Daniel Peretz. But VAR spotted a foul on Kandil in the build up for the goal as the result remained 2-0.

Karanka made his fourth chance as Nir Bitton bowed out almost instantly and was replaced by Avi Rikan. Jovanovic found the back of the net for the third time on the night, but his effort was also scratched off for offside on 67 as he was denied a well-deserved hatrick. 

Zahavi, who desperately tried to get his name on the score-sheet, was almost rewarded for his efforts but shot straight at Ginzburg despite Jovanovic being in a better position. Karanka made his final substitution on 88 as Dor Turgeman replaced Jovanovic who received a standing ovation.

Maccabi travels to Petah Tikva for the MD24 ONE ZERO League encounter against Sektzia Ness Ziona on the back on Monday’s 1-0 victory over Hapoel Be’ersheva. The three [points gained saw Aitor Karanka and his charges narrow the gap from the leaders to five points and move within a point from second placed Be’ersheva. As they face the bottom of the table side Ness Ziona, Maccabi will now aim to string back-to-back wins, something they haven’t done since MD14 & MD15 against Bnei Reineh and Hapoel Hadera .

Hosts Ness Ziona, lost their last four matches and are without a victory in their last 8 matches since the 2-0 win over Ashdod on MD15. The newly promoted side are bottom of the table with 17 points, 1 adrift of fellow strugglers Bnei Reineh. Ness Ziona’s coach Shlomi Dora will be without suspended duo Or Inbrum and Almog Buzaglo who were both sent off in their last match.

When both teams met earlier this season at Bloomfield on MD11, Ness Ziona managed to salvage a 1-1 from Maccabi despite being reduced to 10 men for the majority of the game and nine players in the closing stages.

Three matches before the end of the regular season and before the order of the Playoff matches is determined, Ness Ziona hosts Maccabi on MD24.

Maccabi’s coach, Aitor Karanka, said ahead of the match: “I am confident with my team’s ability and I think that the previous match against Ness Ziona should be a wake- up call for everyone. Even against 10 men we didn’t manage to win so the players know better than me how tough this is going to be. We need to arrive with the right attitude expecting a tough match.”

Maccabi’s left-back Ofir Davidzada, added: “I think the worst possible thing is to approach this match with a ‘comfortable’ attitude. All the teams are dropping points lately and that includes the top three teams as well. If we will think that we are comfortable that we will be the end of us at the end of the match. We know there are no easy matches in this league and we must be prepared with motivation at peak level understanding from the first minute that our aim is only a victory.”

 

Ofir Davidzada faced the media ahead of the match against the newly promoted bottom of the table side: “I think the worst possible thing is to arrive at a game in this league feeling ‘comfortable’. All the teams are dropping points. If we think we are comfortable, we will regret it at the end of the game. We know that in this league there are no easy matches, we must be prepared and fully motivated as we understand that from the first minute our target is to win.”

On whether the victory over Be’ersheva eased some of the pressure on the team, Davidzada replied: “There is always pressure, Be’ersheva was a super critical match for the rest of the season as we understood it has a lot of significance to meet the target we want to achieve. Pressure is a positive thing and at a big club like Maccabi, there is always pressure we must know how to deal with. This is what we do at Maccabi because this is a club which always strives to reach as far away as possible as this is our standard.”

On the work under Aitor Karanka the 31-year-old full back said: “He brought with him a lot of positive energy as he is someone who experienced a lot in his coaching career and one can see the fighting spirit on the pitch. Gradually, we are getting to know his coaching methods as he has only been here for a short while. We will all improve the longer the time progresses.”

On Maccabi’s recent form, Davidzada added: “There is a bit of inconsistency lately which has been evident in our recent results. Over the past few years Maccabi has been very consistent which is what we are aspiring for. We are working hard in training in order to reach the results we want to achieve. If I am not mistaken, we didn’t manage to string two victories since December which is our target this Saturday.”