Preview

Boosted by the 3-1 victory away to Maccabi Haifa last week, Maccabi returned to Bloomfield stadium for the final home match of the season against Hapoel Be’ersheva. While Maccabi recorded two victories in succession over Maccabi Netanya (2-1) and Maccabi Haifa (3-1), Be’ersheva suffered three defeats on the bounce to Maccabi Netanya (3-0), Maccabi Haifa (1-0) and Hapoel Tel Aviv (2-1). As a result, Maccabi, moved within a point from Be’ersheva and could strengthen their claim to finish second in the event of a victory – with two matches still left to play.

Maccabi’s coach Mladen Krstajic made several changes from the side that won at Sammy Ofer as he kept his defence unchanged. Enric Saborit and Idan Nachmias lined-up right in front of goalkeeper Daniel Peretz with Andre Gerlades and Matan Baltaxa completing the back-four on the right and left respectively.

Dan Glazer who served his one-match touchline ban against Haifa, returned to the side and led the team out wearing the captain’s armband. Eyal Golasa kept his place in midfield while Oscar Gloukh who came off the bench to score against Netanya and Haifa returned to the midfield at the expense of Eden Shamir. Eylon Almog and Brandley Kuwas kept their places and were named by Krstajic on both wings in support of Croatian striker Stipe Perica who led the line.

Daniel Tenenbaum, Tal Ben Chaim, Gabi Kanichowsky, Eden Shamir, Avi Rikan, Ofir Davidzada, Shahar Piven, Orel Baye and Djordje Jovanovic were all named on the substitutes bench.

Prior to kickoff a ceremony took place as a tribute to former player Aaron Schoenfeld who scored 10 goals in 76 appearances at Maccabi winning 1 Championship, 2 Toto Cups and 1 Super Cup between 2017 and 2021.

First Half

Maccabi began the match on the front foot as Eyal Golasa tested Omri Glazer 90 seconds after the start with a low drive from the edge of the area which was equalled by Be’ersheva’s keeper. Two minutes later a Matan Baltaxa counter attack caught the visitors’ defence by surprise he sent a perfect cross towards Brandley Kuwas who should have tapped the ball home. Somehow, Kuwas’ weak effort was cleared off the line by Helder Loppez in what should have been the miss of the season, if the offside flag didn’t save the Curacao international the embarrassment. Nikita Rukavytsya was inches away from heading Be’ersheva into the lead at the opposite end as his header from point blank range narrowly missed the target. In the 15th minute however, Rukavytsya was shown a direct red card by referee Gal Leibovic for a reckless tackle on Baltaxa’s ankle. Be’ersheva were left with 10 men while Mladen Krstajic was forced to make a change as Baltaxa limped off with an ankle injury and was replaced by Shahar Piven. In the 24th minute, Eyal Golasa beat two Be’ersheva players on the edge of the area before teeing-up Enric Saborit whose left foot shot sailed over the crossbar.

Saborit continued to pose a threat down the left flank as his telling cross towards Stipe Perica rolled across the face of Be’ersheva’s goal with the Croatian striker failing to make contact. A minute later, Saborit struck a shot with his right foot that deflected off a defender before Glazer collected with ease.

Three minutes after the half hour mark Be’ersheva’s keeper needed a double save to take the sting out of Perica’s powerful shot from outside the area. Two minutes later Golasa released Oscar Gloukh into Be’ersheva’s penalty box with a clever flick but the youngster’s shot found Glazer ready.

Kuwas tried his luck in the 43rd minute, but once again Glazer came to Be’ersheva’s rescue as he pushed the ball out. A goalmouth scramble inside injury time saw Perica denied by Be’ersheva’s defence before Idan Nachmias’ effort was cleared for a corner. The deadlock was finally broken shortly after as Kuwas curled the resulting corner and Eylon Almog rose high to head in the opener.

Second Half

While Krstajic made no changes after the break, his Be’ersheva counterpart, Elyaniv Barda, made a double change of his own at the restart as Sagiv Yehezkel and Danilo Asprilla replaced both Ramzi Safuri and Eugene Ansah.

Maccabi came close to double their lead on 49 as Gloukh found Saborit inside the area but the Spaniard sent his volley onto the roof of the net. Andre Geraldes, who didn’t score a goal in 3 years at Maccabi, almost scored his debut goal in the 52^nd minute but the Portuguese full-back flashed a volley wide of the post.

Krstajic made three changes on the hour mark as he introduced Avi Rikan for Kuwas, Tal Ben Chaim replaced Almog and Djordje Jovanovic came-in for Perica.

Golasa received a standing ovation from the majority of the 14,762 fans as he was replaced in the 72^nd minute by Gabi Kanichowsky for Maccabi’s fifth and final substitution. Jovanovic looked lively as the Serbian striker curled a shot which narrowly missed the frame of the goal as Maccabi looked destined to score the second. But in the 75th minute and against the run of play Be’ersheva were back on level terms as Miguel Vitor headed a corner that beat Daniel Peretz to make it 1-1.

In the 80th minute three of Maccabi’s substitutes combined well to create a great chance as Jovanovic released Kanichowsky whose cut-back was fired by Rikan wide of the post. Nachmias should have scored less than a minute later as the central found himself right in front of goal, but he lost his footing and didn’t manage to connect. Despite five minutes of added time, and amid Maccabi’s desperate attempts to score a late winner, Be’ersheva managed to hang onto the draw.

The point gained kept Maccabi in third spot with 66 points, one adrift of Hapoel Be’ersheva. On the eve of the final league round, Maccabi are still in with a chance to finish the season in second place but their fate are no longer in their hands. A victory in Saturday’s Tel Aviv derby against Hapoel at Bloomfield together with Be’ersheva dropping points against Bnei Sakhnin at Turner could see Maccabi finish in the runners up spot.

Eylon Almog didn’t hide his disappointment that his debut league goal against Hapoel Be’ersheva wasn’t enough to earn Maccabi three valuable points. “we had so many good chances to kill off this match, way before the goal we conceded, but this happens in footbal” he said. “We paid the price for the chances we missed, they were reduced to 10 men, and we should have finished off the chances we created but we didn’t score and then we conceded. We wanted to win this game but it didn’t happen and we have to move on. Now we have a tough game ahead of us as everyone knows what is a derby”.

While Maccabi suffered a blow in their bid to finish second, the race for the runners up spot will go to wire as Almog admitted: “We have a derby before us and everyone at Maccabi knows the meaning of a derby. We want to do our job, win the derby and see if results elsewhere would go in our favour”.

The 25-year-old central defender said ahead of the game: “We come to every game with the intention of collecting three points” Idan Nachmias said, “Just like every athlete we come come to win matches”.

On the significance of securing second place ahead of the forthcoming European season: “To finish second place is extremely important as those next two games and the and these six points are critical. We will do everything we can in order to win the next two games”.

Nachmias, who joined Maccabi in the summer from Kiryat Shmona summed up his season on a personal note: “I can say that in every game I played I gave everything in order to play until the injury I suffered. At the end of the day, some of the things are beyond your control, but at a big club like Maccabi you don’t want to lose a game so you don’t lose your place. At the end of the season I can say that it was a year of learning”

The youngster, who scored his second goal in three days and second goal against Haifa this season, added: “It was a game like every other game, we knew that we will play against the Champions but we came here to win like every other game”. Gloukh said. “We came here to complete our job and go home, but yes this victory was sweet. To score is exciting as always but it is even better to score the goal that seals the victory. From here we will just move on to our next game”.