Maccabi Tel Aviv and Mladen Krstajic began the second league round with a 1-1 draw against Bnei Sakhnin who were reduced to 10 men for the second half at Bloomfield as the Serbian coach summed up the match. “I would rather focus on the game” he replied when asked about the opponents’ time wasting antics. “We knew this game was going to be tough as many teams in this league play in the same way. In terms of finding solutions and improving our game in the future, this is something we will keep to ourselves. It is very important for us to work very hard in training on our finishing in the final 30 meters of the pitch. We dropped two points today and I am not satisfied with that. Today I received a picture about some of the problems the team has. The players gave their maximum but they clearly suffer from a lack confidence upfront which prevents them from taking risks – and it is our duty to improve that”.

On the quality of his squad, Krstajic replied: “We had a problem with several players who were ill over the past few days. We need time in order to get our ideas across and for the players to implement them- only then we will discuss their qualities. at the moment we think that we have quality players and a good enough team. We might make some changes in various positions and focus our work on the top third of the pitch. We didn’t create enough chances today and from that we are not satisfied”.

In the wake of the forthcoming January transfer window, Krstajic said: “We are thinking about everything we need to do in order to improve the team. We will hold internal discussions within the club but the most important thing for us is to implement our methods with the players and only concentrate on what we must do in the future”.

Preview

Five days after making his Maccabi Tel Aviv debut against third division side Hapoel Marmorek in the State Cup, Mladen Krstajic returned to Bloomfield stadium to make his league debut against third place Bnei Sakhnin.

With both teams tied on 21 points and only goal difference separating between them, the newly appointed Serbian coach couldn’t have asked for a another match to guide Maccabi further up the table. Bnei Sakhnin that inflicted Maccabi a 3-1 defeat on the opening day of the season, arrived at Bloomfield stadium for the reverse fixture that opened the second league round.

Krstajic who had several players recovering from illness during the week, made a host of changes from the side that beat Marmorek in the Cup.

Matan Baltaxa, who played at left-back against Marmorek, pushed into the middle and joined Idan Nachmias and Luis Hernandez as three central defenders with Andre Geraldes and Matan Hozez as the two wing-backs on the right and left respectively.

Eden Shamir kept his place in the midfield engine room alongside Eyal Golasa who in the absence of Sheran Yeini, led the team out wearing the captain’s armband. Gabi Kanichowsky was assigned to a more attacking role as the diminutive midfielder lined-up alongside Brandley Kuwas with the duo responsible for supplying the ammunition for Croatian striker Stipe Perica upfront.

First Half

In the opening stages Maccabi tried attacking Sakhnin from the wings through Geraldes and Hozez but couldn’t reach a decisive chance or carve an opening. In the 12th minute however, Maccabi’s defence struggled to clear a corner as Ibrahima Conte whipped in a cross which was headed in by Ante Puljic past Daniel Peretz. The linesman raised his flag for offside but after several minutes of inspecting the incident by VAR, referee Eitan Shmuelevic allowed the goal to count as Sakhnin were in front.

Matan Hozez came close in the 22st minute as he was at the end of a Geraldes cross before firing a volley that Gad Amos managed to push for a corner. Maccabi kept pressing Sakhnin and were awarded two more corners in the space of a minute before Gabi Kanichowsky curled the corner from the right and Matan Baltaxa ghosted at the near post to restore parity by heading-in the equaliser on 23.

Eyal Golasa and Eden Shamir kept battling at the centre of the park with Sakhnin’s midfield trio of Mohamad Kabha, Ihab Ghanaim and veteran captain Beram Kayal. Down the wings on the other hand, Hozez kept on looking lively as he picked a long pass from Shamir in the 32nd minute, cut inside but fired his shot wide of the target.

In the 44^th minute though a Kanichowsky run down the left saw Sakhnin’s Moti Barshatzky foul him from behind earning him a red card thus reducing the visitors to 10 men for the remainder of the game.

Second half

With no changes during the interval Maccabi began the second half with urgency aiming to capitalise on their numerical advantage.

In the 56^th minute, a foul on Golasa on the edge of the area saw Kanichowsky’s initial free kick blocked before Amos stretched himself to save Golasa’s resulting rebound. Right on the hour mark, Krstajic made his first change as Tal Ben Chaim came in for Brandley Kuwas.

Sakhnin defended deep, wasted as much time as possible and forced the game into minimum playing time a fact which caused tempers to flair both on and off the pitch. Krstajic made a triple substitution in the 72nd minute as Shamir, Golasa and Hozez were replaced by Dan Glazer, Eylon Almog and Eduardo Guerrero. In the 81^st minute, Krstajic made his fifth and final substitution as Osama Khalaila replaced Stipe Perica for the final 9 minutes to try win the game against his former club.

Khalaila came close on 87 as he flashed a volley wide of the post following a Nachmias knock down. Sakhnin’s time wasting antics didn’t go unnoticed as the referee awarded 10 minutes of additional time. But several minutes after being booked for a tussle in the box, Khalaila received his second booking for a clash of heads with a Sakhnin opponent. Despite all of Maccabi’s efforts, the visitors managed to hang on amid the growing frustration amongst the majority of the 10,101 fans. Shmuelevic’s final whistle saw Sakhnin and their coach Sharon Mimer celebrate the point they earned with Krstajic will have to wait for his first league victory elsewhere.

 

Maccabi begin the second league round with a home match against Bnei Sakhnin. Since the 2012/13 season and under the current league format, Maccabi’s record in the second league round opener is 6 victories, 2 draws and a solitary defeat.

Next week’s opponents Maccabi Petah Tikva is the team Maccabi faced more than any other team in the first match of the second round – 9 times.

A 13-0 win over Maccabi Rishon Lezion opened the second league round of the 1949/50 season and is both Maccabi’s and Israel’s all-time highest ever league win.

In 33 seasons throughout history, Maccabi second round was better than the first.

Last season (2020/21) is ranked in Maccabi’s history in the top four seasons in terms of an improvement from the first to the second round. (1962/63, 1966/68 and 1974/75).

In 31 seasons Maccabi collected more points in the first round, while in 5 seasons they collected the same number of points in the second d round.

Throughout history, Maccabi reached a 58.1% success rate in the first league rounds and a 59.6% in the second.

Maccabi met Sakhnin in the league 45 times and recorded 31 victories, 9 draws and 5 defeats with a total goal tally of 92-32.

Maccabi has a 75.6% success rate against Bnei Sakhnin – the highest ratio of the 21 opponents Maccabi played against in 25 league matches or more.

The home record Maccabi has when hosting Sakhnin in the league is 18 victories, 3 draws and a solitary defeat with a record 86.4% success rate (from a minimum of 20 home matches).

A run which currently stands on 15 successive victories at home over Bnei Sakhnin is the highest all-time Israeli league record.