Maccabi Tel Aviv celebrated a sweet State Cup triumph this evening (Tuesday) after an impressive comeback against Hapoel Be’ersheva at Teddy Stadium. Revivo, who ended a successful season with 13 assists in the league and 17 in all competitions took his tally to 7 goals with a second half winning goal.

As his side went into the second half trailing by one goal, Revivo reflected on what went on in the dressing room during the interval and the hunger for silverware. “I think we looked very good in the first half. The way we looked in those 45 minutes made us believe it was just around the corner, one more move, one more moment of brilliance and we’d be there.”

As opposed to previous matches dueing the Playoff, Maccabi didn’t suffer a dip in form in the second half as Revivo said: “We knew it was one game and we were very, very hungry to win a title.” The 23-year-old full-back who grew up in Maccabi’s youth academy, added: “This is Maccabi Tel Aviv, this is a club of titles. You can see it on the shirt, it’s written on my back, and thank God we did it.”

After winning two league championships, Revivo now added the State Cup as well, as he said of his desire to play abroad: “Every player wants to go to Europe, it’s every player’s dream. I don’t know what will happen this summer, God is great.”

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”.