Pre Match

Facing the bottom of the table side Alashkert in Yerevan knowing that the result will not influence the table standings, Maccabi’s interim coach, Barak Itzhaki, gave a much needed rest to the players who feature on a regular basis and made several changes to his starting line-up.

Even though the cold weather conditions at the Armenian capital resembled those in Jerusalem earlier this week, Itzhaki, sent out 10 different players than those who started against Beitar Jerusalem on Sunday.

Daniel Tenenbaum who recovered from a back injury that kept him out so far this season, was handed his first start, giving the ever present Daniel Peretz a rest with Or Yitzhak named on the bench as the second choice keeper. Idan Nachmias, the only player who started against Beitar, kept his place at the heart of defence as he was partnered by Matan Baltaxa. Maor Kandil, who also recovered from a long term injury that sidelined him so far, returned to the right side of defence after a long absence with Enric Saborit completing the back-four on the left.

Eden Shamir and Avi Rikan were also given a chance in midfield with young Ido Shahar completing the midfield trio. Matan Hozez, who scored against Alashkert when Maccabi beat the Armenians 4-1 at Bloomfield, started on one wing with Eylon Almog on the opposite flank responsible for supplying the ammunition for Osama Khalaila who led the line upfront.

Or Itzhak, Dan Glazer, Stipe Perica, Dan Biton, Tal Ben Chaim, Gabi Kanichowsky, Brandley Kuwas, Sheran Yeini, Eyal Golasa, Ofir Davidzada Andre Geraldes and Luis Hernandez were all named as the substitutes for the match.

First Half

With the temperatures dropping close to zero, Maccabi began the match at the Republican stadium in Yerevan and enjoyed most of the possession right from the start.

Six minutes after kickoff an Idan Nachmias diagonal ball found Enric Saborit whose first touch square ball into the path of Osama Khalaila was cleared before the striker could get a touch. In the 10th minute Alashkert’s winger James almost draw first blood as he skipped past a Maor Kandil challenge to break into the Maccabi area before firing his shot across the face of Daniel Tenenbaum’s goal from close range.

A minute later, Eylon Almog should have put Maccabi in front as he raced through the middle beating two defenders in the process, but with only the keeper to beat was denied by a spectacular Ognjen Cancarevic save.

In the 20th minute, Maccabi’s pressure on Alashkert’s defence won them the ball deep inside the hosts’ side and with a numerical advantage. But as Khalaila unselfishly fed Matan Hozez, the winger had his shot saved by the keeper for a corner.

Marko Milinkovic had the ball in he back of Tenebaum’s goal in the 35th minute but the goal was disallowed for offside. Two minutes later another Maccabi counter attack almost resulted with a goal but once again Hozez had his effort blocked. In the 40th minute Ido Shahar found himself in a glorious position to score but the diminutive midfielders shot from the center of the area was blocked by an Alashkert defender.

With no goals before the interval, the halftime whistle of Hungarian referee Georg Bogar sent both teams to warm up in the dressing rooms.

Second Half

Barak Itzhaki made his first change as Ofir Davidzada replaced Emric Saborit at the restart. In the 63rd minute Itzhaki made a triple substitution as Dan Biton, Gabi Kanichowsky and Brandley Kuwas came in for Shahar, Hozez and Rikan who handed the captain’s armband to Tenenbaum.

Andre Gerales replaced Maor Kandil in the 70th minute ad Itzhaki made his fifth and final change. Kuwas won a free kick on the edge of the Alaskhert penalty area on 74 and Biton curled the free kick which was making its way into the top corner only for Cancarevic to tip the ball out for a corner.

In the 77th minute however, Alashkert took the lead as Milinkovic curled a free kick into the area before Dejan Boljevic rose high at the far post and headed home past Tenenbaum.

In the 89th minute Maccabi were back on level terms as a corner was fumbled by the keeper into the path of Eylon Almog who sent a half volley that went in off the crossbar to make it 1-1.

Despite three minutes of added time and pressure to try and snatch a late winner, Maccabi couldn’t find the opening as the referee’s final whistle ended the match in a tie.

The draw meant Maccabi ended the group with 11 points from six matches having won 3 drawn 2 and lost 1 to LASK that finished top with 16 after beating HJK 3-0.

Maccabi Tel Aviv FC is pleased to announce the appointment of Mladen Krstajic as Head Coach.

Mladen Krstajic (47) was a professional football player in Serbia and Germany where he played for Werder Bremen for four seasons playing in 112 matches during which he won the Championship in 2004 before joining Schalke 04 where he played for five seasons making 183 appearances and became captain. After returning to Serbia and playing for two seasons at Partizan Belgrade, Krstajic retired in 2011 having represented 3 different national teams: Yugoslavia (20 appearances), Serbia and Montenegro (27 appearances) and Serbia (11 appearances). He began his coaching career as an assistant for the Serbia national team before being appointed as the Serbia national team coach between 2017-2019 and in 2021 returned to coach FK TSC Backa Topola of the Serbian SuperLiga.

Owner, Mitch Goldhar, stated, “Mladen possesses the qualities we value at Maccabi;  work ethic, professionalism and ambition to win. These character traits propelled Mladen to the highest level in Europe and will benefit the Club in the pursuit of our goals. We all warmly welcome Mladen and his assistants with our unified support.”

Mladen Krstajic, said, “I would like to thank Mitch for entrusting me with the responsibility of coaching Maccabi Tel Aviv. I am humbled to join the most successful Club in Israel, a Club with a rich history and tradition. As I have tried to do throughout my life, I will work hard and diligently to help the Club achieve success. I am looking forward to start work immediately as there is much work to do.”

Mladen will be joined by his assistants, Vladimir Radenkovic, Stefan Jankovic and Professor Dr Marko Stojanovic, who will all arrive in Israel subject to completion of all the necessary formalities.

Mitch Goldhar added, “I would like to thank Barak Itzhaki for accepting the responsibility of interim manager when asked, without hesitation. He has performed his duties professionally, displaying again strong loyalty and commitment to the Club. Shortly, he will return to his role as Head of Football and work closely with Mladen and the rest of the Club’s Management.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv landed this afternoon (Wednesday) in Armenia ahead of tomorrow’s final Conference League group stage match against Alashkert. After a short rest the team arrived at the Rublican stadium in Yerevan and held their final practice session. This is the second time Maccabi visit the Vazgen Sargsyan stadium as they played Pyunik Yerevan in a Europa League qualifier back in 2018.

At the pre-match press conference, Maccabi’s Head of Football Department, Barak Itzhaki, who will guide the team once again as interim coach, said: “It is true we secured our place in the Playoff” he replied to the question about whether or not he intends to rotate his squad and allow several players some much needed rest: “We will only know tomorrow who will play. Or at least I know but don;t intend to reveal this now is we still have one training session ahead of us. We have a very tight fixture list so maybe we will share the load but this is something I will keep with me until tomorrow”.

While Maccabi missed out on automatic qualification to the round of 16 and now face a match against a bottom of the table side that will not influence the group standing, Itzhaki replied: “There are no easy matches in this competition. We could have faced difficulties from every team in this group. We expected to finish in top spot but sadly we didn’t qualify from the first position. We still have two more games to play, as now we will have to wait and see who is the opponent that we are handed in the draw so hopefully we could advance through to the next phase”.

Maccabi’s 33-year-old midfielder Avi Rikan added about the Armenian side they beat 4-1 at Bloomfield when both teams met earlier this season: “We analysed the opponents and know who we will be facing tomorrow. In the first match we saw Alashkert has a very dangerous striker but we tend to focus on ourselves and try to play our game”.

Maccabi flew out to Armenia ahead of the final Conference League group stage match against Alashkert (Thursday, 19:45).

Having already secured 2nd place which guaranteed qualification to the round of 32, Maccabi face the bottom of the table side in frozen weather condition.

The 30-year-old left back whose assist to Stipe Perica led Maccabi to the 2-1 victory against Beitar Jerusalem said after the match: “We knew in advance that this is going to be an extremely tough match after they changed a coach. We are in a complex situation and knew that we need the points regardless of how this game would look. Maccabi has a winning character and whoever doesn’t act in this manner will not be on the pitch”.

When asked about the appointment of Barak Itzhaki as interim coach, Davidzada added: “As players we don’t deal with the future which is not in our control – we have Barak as our coach and you can all believe me that he has gone through a lot in football and has a great understanding of the game. This is a process, it is not a matter of a game or two. He has his theories about the game and we are gradually implementing them”.

After recording an important 2-1 victory over Beitar Jerusalem at Teddy stadium, Maccabi’s Head of Football Department, Barak Itzhaki, who is guiding the side as an interim coach, said: “We were the better side”. Itzhaki who played for Maccabi and Beitar during his playing career, shared his past experience: “I played here for a day or two and know what it is to face Beitar Jerusalem in their current condition. Despite all the noise surrounding them, Beitar is still a club that knows how to draw energies from the situation and played pretty well. But regardless, I still think that my team were the better side and deserved to win”.

When asked about the involvement of the club owner, Mitch Goldhar, Itzhaki was clear: “I am in regular contact with Goldhar. He has been Maccabi Tel Aviv’s owner for over 10 years and if you just look at the revolution this club underwent over the years one can clearly see that a strong club was built both on and off the pitch. I can assure you all that the owner is involved and involved in the smallest of details”.

Preview

On the back of last week’s disappointing 1-1 draw against Nof Hagalil, Maccabi arrived at Teddy stadium for the league match against under turmoil Beitar Jerusalem whose coach Erwin Koeman stepped down after last week’s defeat away to Bnei Sachnin. Maccabi’s interim coach Barak Itzhaki made three changes to the starting line-up from the side which was held to a draw at Bloomfield as Ofir Davidzada replaced Enric Saborit at left-back.

The remaining defensive line remained unchanged with Idan Nachmias keeping his place alongside Luis Hernandez as the two central defenders while Andre Geraldes completed the back four on the right. Sheran Yeini led the team out with the captain’s armband as the veteran skipper occupied the anchor-man role right behind Gabi Kanichowsky and Dan Biton who replaced Eyal Golasa

Tal Ben Chaim, who scored a goal in each one of the last two league matches against Hapoel Haifa and Nof Hagalil kept his place. Brandley Kuwas who hasn’t scored in the final to matches, but was on target in the previous three outings – kept his place while Stipe Perica returned to the side at the expense of Osama Khalaila who waited for his chance on the bench.

Daniel Tenenbaum and Dan Glazer who both recovered from respective back and knee injuries were back amongst the substitutes.

First Half

Maccabi began the match on the back foot as the home side seemed to have dominated the opening minutes with Aviel Zargeri threatening to draw first blood only for his shot to be collected by goalkeeper Daniel Peretz. Five minutes from the start, referee Daniel Bar Natan was forced to stop the match for a few minutes in order to ensure that the smoke caused by flares lit in the away section cleared and visibility is restored. Shortly after the match was resumed, Stipe Perica chested down a Brandley Kuwas cross into the path of Dan Biton who fired his shot wide. Sheran Yeini tried his luck with a long range effort in the 10th minute only to see his shot fly high over the crossbar.

A Yeini cross towards Perica in the 16th minute reached the Croatian striker but the towering forward directed his header wide. Liran Rotman was given the time and space to break down the right side of Maccabi’s defence in the 20th minute before the diminutive Beitar winger sent his shot narrowly wide. Rotman had another shot blocked by Andre Geraldes three minutes later before Peretz released a counter attack which began with Tal Ben Chaim and resulted with a Gabi Kanichowsly shot that also missed the target at the opposite end.

Right on the half hour mark the deadlock was finally broken as Maccabi took the lead through Brandley Kuwas who exploited a school boy error by Ofir Kriaf to latch on the loose ball, go round Itamar Nitzan and with the goal at his mercy bury it in Beitar’s net. In the 37th minute however Beitar were back on level terms as Roi Herman floated a cross from the right and Yarden Shuah fired a half volley that beat Peretz and went in off the post to the delight of the home fans.

Despite four minutes of added time no goals were scored as both teams went into the dressing rooms to warm up from the cold Jerusalem weather.

Second Half

With no changes at the interval Maccabi returned for the second half where they left off as a Ben Chaim through ball in the 49th released Dan Biton into the area but the midfielder’s left foot shot was punched by Nitzan for a corner.

Maccabi regained the lead in the 55th minute as a pinpoint Ofir Davidzada cross from the left allowed Perica to rise high over Nitzan and head the ball home to make it 2-1.

Barak Itzhaki made a double substitution in the 66th minute as Eyal Golasa replaced Biton while Eduardo Guerrero came in for Ben Chaim.

Kuwas almost increased Maccabi’s lead less than sixty seconds later as the Curaçao international blasted a left foot powerful drive that flew just wide of the top corner.

Guerrero came close to get on the score sheet on 71 as he raced onto a clever Yeini flick that caught Beitar’s defence flat. But the Panamanian forward was denied by Nitzan who charged off his line to save at his feet.

Two minutes later Shuah curled a right foot shot that missed Maccabi’s top corner and at the opposite end Guerrero was brought down on the edge of the area by a clumsy Kriaf challenge. Kanichowsky fired the resulting free kick only to see his shot sail frustratingly wide.

Richmond Boakye tried his luck in the 82nd minute but his shot crept wide of Peretz’s post. Beitar began to enjoy some good moments, leading Itzhaki to make another double substitution on 87 as Eylon Almog came in for Perica while Dan Glazer replaced the tired Kanichowsky. Avi Rikan replaced Kuwas inside injury time as Maccabi had another chance to increase the lead only for Guerrero to send the ball over the bar.

Bar Natan’s final whistle saw the Maccabi players celebrate the victory and the three points with the 3000 travelling fans who braved the cold weather conditions and returned to Tel Aviv with smiles on their faces.