Category: News
MACCABI DRAW 1-1 AGAINST LASK
Pregame
Klagenfurt’s Wörthersee stadium hosted Maccabi Tel Aviv for the Conference League group stage second Match day against LASK. With both teams winning their respective first matches against Alashkert of Armenia and HJK Helsinki, Maccabi had a tough task on their hands against the Austrians who won in Finland. Several absentees were missing from Maccabi’s squad as Enric Saborit, Avi Rikan, Maor Kandil, Idan Nachmias and Eyal Golasa didn’t travel while Tal Ben Chaim was also withdrawn in the last minute.
Patrick van Leeuwen made a single change from the side that was beaten in Be’ersheva last weekend as Shahar Piven replaced the injured Nachmias at the heart of defence. Daniel Peretz kept his place in goal with Luis Hernandez partnering Piven right in-front of the 21-year-old keeper while Andre Gerlades and Ofir Davidzada completing the back-four.
The midfield remained unchanged with captain Sheran Yeini and Dan Glazer as the two anchor-men while Dan Biton was at the top of the midfield trio. Gabi Kanichowsky and Brandley Kuwas were assigned to both wings in support of Croatian striker Stipe Perica who led the line.
First Half
Four minutes after the start Maccabi reached their first chance as Dan Biton released Gabi Kanichowsky into the area, but the diminutive winger who raced clear through, was judged to have been offside. In the 10th minute however the hosts took the lead as a cross from the left was flicked by Thomas Goiginger onto the post before Sacha Horvath reacted first to bury in the opener past Daniel Peretz. LASK came close to double their lead a minute later as Alexander Schmidt received the ball behind Maccabi’s defensive line only to be denied by Peretz who charged off his line to squander the chance.
Dan Glazer came close with a header that went wide on 15 following a Dan Biton corner. Two minutes later Biton released Stipe Perica who was put under pressure by a Lask defender before the tall Croat sent his shot over the crossbar. Right on the half hour mark Goiginger skipped past a Glazer tackle, raced through the middle and fired a powerful low drive that Peretz pushed out for a corner.
Second Half
With no changes at halftime, Maccabi reached a good chance in the 55th minute as Perica timed his run well to ghost behind Lask’s defense but failed to connect onto Kanichowsky’s delicate chip. Two minutes later Kanichowsky tried a shot from the edge of the area that sailed high and wide of the target. Biton went into the referee’s book for a mistimed tackle in the 60th minute before Peretz and Andre Geraldes rescued Maccabi from conceding a second. Van Leeuwen reacted as he made a double change replacing Biton and Brandley Kuwas with Matan Hozez and Eduardo Guerrero on 62.
Van Leeuwen made two more changes in the 71st minute as Eden Shamir replaced Sheran Yeini while Osama Khalaila came in for Perica. In the 87th minute Van Leeuwen’s changes paid off as two of the substitutes combined for the equaliser. Davidzada found Guerrero on the edge of the Lask area before the Panamanian’s shot come cross was deflected in by Shamir for his second Maccabi goal in Europe. Boosted by the late equaliser Hozez came close in injury time with a shot from inside the area that goalkeeper Alexander Schlager caught with relative ease.
Yeini features in UEFA magazine. Watch
Introducing our opponents: What should we expect from LASK?
On the back of the 4-1 victory over Alashkert in the opening match of the group stages, MD2 of the Conference League takes Maccabi Tel Aviv to Austria where they face LASK at Klagenfurt. Shortly before the match, we took time to get to know who seems on paper as the toughest hurdle we face in Group 1.
While Maccabi were drawn from the second seeded pot, LASK were drawn from the first as the Austrian club who are based in the city of Linz ended last season fourth in their domestic table. Despite ending the regular season in third place, LASK finished the Austrian Playoffs in fourth to earn a European berth. They began their Conference League campaign in the 3rd qualifying round where they knocked Serbian outfit Vojvodina and recorded a comfortable 7-1 aggregate victory. Scottish side St. Johnstone were LASK’s opponents in the Playoffs before qualification to the group stages was secured thanks to a 2-0 victory in the return at Scotland and a 3-1 aggregate win.
A Round of 16 encounter with Manchester United
The Austrian side are making their fourth successive appearance in a European group stage as LASK played in the last two seasons in the EUROPA League. In 2019/20 LASK had an impressive run that saw them reach the Round of 16 where they were knocked out by Manchester United, losing the 1st leg in Austria 5-0 and the return leg at Old Trafford 2-1. Last season LASK finished third in their group behind Tottenham Hotspur and Antwerp.
LASK beat Admira Wacker at the weekend to move into 6th in the table with 10 points from 9 matches.t. In Europe, the Austrians began the group stage on a high note with a 2-0 victory over HJK Helsinki in Finland on MD1.
Photo: LASKOfficial Facebook ()
The stadium
LASK hosts their home league matches at the TGW Arena but in Europe they travel 4 hours to Klagenfurt where they will host Maccabi at the Wörthersee Stadion. The 30,000 capacity stadium located at the Sportpark in Klagenfurt was one of the venues used during the 2008 EURO’s hosted in Austria and Switzerland.
Managerial and squad changes
LASK’s indifferent start in the Austrian league led to the recent parting company from Dominik Thalhammer whose 38-year-old assistant Andreas Wieland was appointed as Head Coach.
The squad of LASK consists mostly of local Austrian players yet have 11 foreign players from 10 different nationalities. LASK’s senior striker, is 22-year-old Frenchman Mamoudou Karamoko n. Last season’s top scorer Johannes Eggenstein who scored 20 goals in all competitions ended his loan spell from Werder Bremen and left in the summer.
Photo: LASKOfficial Facebook ()
Two players who also left LASK at the end of last season were Danish midfielder Mads Madsen to join Slavia Prague and central defender Gernot Trauner who was signed by Dutch giants Feyenoord. At the heart of defence LASK added Dario Maresic on loan from Stade Reims with the Austrians’ attacking midfield led by Thomas Goiginger and Husein Balic.
Andreas Gruber who scored 10 goals last season and is regarded as a key player, has been suffering from a long term injury since February. Two more promising young players who joined this summer are South Korea’s Hong Hyun-seok (22) and Japanese winger Keito Nakamura (21).
Photo: LASKOfficial Facebook ()
Yeini: “It is always exciting to play in Europe”
On the feeling ahead of another European match, the veteran captain added: “It is always exciting to play in Europe. For us it is an amazing adventure. Seeing different places, it is true that during COVID things are tougher and more complicated, but we visit new stadiums – this competition is amazing to take part in as we would like to continue for as long as possible”.
Yeini, who could make his 71st appearance for Maccabi in Europe, spoke about the last league match the team had lost at Be’ersheva. “We were disappointed by the way we played. It wasn’t our regular ability, we hope to be more consistent with our form and as that didn’t happen we were angry. It is normal for a footballer as we always want to be the best”
Watch: Van Leeuwen speaks ahead of LASK
Ronen Hanzis signs new three-year-deal
Ronen Hanzis, will continue playing at Maccabi Tel Aviv for at least three more years after signing a three-year-deal with an option to extend by a further season.
After signing the new deal, Hanzis told the club’s official website: “I am delighted to sign a new contract at Maccabi Tel Aviv a place that has welcomed me with open arms from the moment I joined and a club that helped me progress and where I see my future. I am certain that together we will achieve things in the future as now all I have left is to work hard and justify the faith shown in me”.
Maccabi’s Head of the Football Department added: “When we signed Ronen at Maccabi Tel Aviv we knew the potential he has and over the past two years he showed progress that led us to this contract extension. We are certain that this is only the beginning and wish him the best of luck”.
Hanzis, joined Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Youth Academy from Maccabi Petah Tikva in 2019 and in his first season with Maccabi Tel Aviv ‘Shahar’ scored 7 goals in 19 appearances in all competitions. He made his senior debut at Maccabi in the Super Cup match against Hapoel Be’ersheva on August 13th 2020 before winning another trophy several days later in his second senior appearance during the Toto Cup Final against Bnei Sachnin. Hanzis also made his European debut as a substitute in the Champions league Playoff match against Red Bull Salzburg.
The 19-year-old spent last season on loan at Beitar Tel Aviv Bat Yam and scored 6 goals in 22 appearances in all competitions including 3 that helped his team reach the State Cup Semi Final.
This season Hanzis scored his first senior goal at Maccabi in his only appearance so far against Hapoel Jerusalem in the Toto Cup. Hanzis represented Israel’s young national teams (U-18’s, U-17’s and U16’s) 33 times and scored 6 goals.
Yeini: “We didn’t manage to maintain stability and that is disappointing”.
Sheran Yeini today climbed to the fourth place in the all time appearance record for Maccabi, but this is not how he wished to celebrate his landmark. At the end of the 2-0 defeat to Hapoel Be’ersheva, Yeini said: “I am not relating to this statistic right now. We are angry first at ourselves, at the ability we displayed, at the battles we lost, at the fact we failed to maintain our stability and gave them confidence. I believe that with the experience we have here and the hard work – we will succeed”.
Van Leeuwen: “We didn’t deserve to win but didn’t deserve to lose either”
Maccabi’s coach Patrick van Leeuwen spoke after the 2-0 defeat to Hapoel Be’ersheva at Turner.
“We didn’t pay attention at the start of the game and should have been more attentive in the set pieces and in winning the fights if you have to go up” Van Leeuwen said. On the injury of Idan Nachmias who limped off with an injury, Van Leeuwen added: “I didn’t see exactly how the injury to Idan Nachmias happened, but it is obviously not nice if you have a player who is performing well, a new signing who is in good form gets injured in a game like this”.
On Eylon Almog’s late dismissal: “Regarding the red card, I will have to check what happened there, but I think there were too many decisions who were against us. In my opinion the opportunity they had, we should have been awarded a penalty for a handball that was ignored by the VAR. So although we didn’t deserve to win, we didn’t deserve to lose either”.
MACCABI BEATEN 2-0 AT BE’ERSHEVA
Pre Match
Boosted by the victory over Maccabi Haifa last Saturday, Maccabi arrived at Turner stadium aiming to maintain the momentum created at Bloomfield seven days earlier. Patrick van Leeuwen made no changes to his starting line-up that beat Haifa and sent out the same 11 players against Be’ersheva.
Daniel Peretz kept his place in goal with Idan Nachmias and Luis Hernandez as the two central defenders while Andre Geraldes and Ofir Davidzada completed the defensive back-four. Sheran Yeini led the team out with the captain’s armband making his 494th appearance to move above Avi Nimni into 4th place of the all-time appearance records. Dan Glazer joined Yeini at the heart of midfield with Dan Biton completed the midfield trio specifically assigned to supply the ammunition for the forward line.
Brandley Kuwas and Gabi Kanichowsky kept their places on both wings in support of Stipe Perica who will aim to continue his scoring spree which has now been stretched to three goals in as many successive matches. On the bench however, Van Leeuwen made a single change as Ido Shahar replaced Tal Ben Chaim amongst the substitutes who waited for their chance to make an impact.
First Half
Turner stadium was packed for the match which began with both teams trying to stamp their authority right from the start as tackles were flying-in as soon as the whistle was heard. A Brandley Kuwas tackle on Eugene Ansah near the byline and just inside Maccabi’s half saw referee Aviad Shiloah award Be’ersheva a free kick in the fourth minute. Helder Lopes whipped in the free kick before Danilo Asprilla rose above Maccabi’s defence and sent a header that beat Daniel Peretz at the far post.
Van Leeuwen was forced to make his first change in the 15th minute as Idan Nachmias limped-off with what seemed like a collarbone injury, as he was replaced by Matan Baltaxa. Be’eesheva came close to double their lead in the 22nd minute as Asprilla charged forward through the middle before releasing Ansah into the area. Be’eesheva’s forward had the time and space to beat Peretz, but the 21-year-old keeper saved with his feet to keep Maccabi in the game. Right on the half hour mark, Dor Micha limped off with a hamstring injury and was replaced at Be’ersheva by Ramzi Safuri.
Maccabi created their first serious chance in the 36th minute as a well-drilled free kick saw Dan Biton release Andre Geraldes whose cross was headed by Luis Hernandez over the crossbar. Be’ersheva continued to look dangerous on the counter attack as Ansah forced another save from Peretz in the 38th minute. Four minutes later, Maccabi exposed Be’ersheva’s defence with a counter attack of their own. But Kuwas’ attempt to score from close range which appeared to have beaten Ariel Harush, was cleared from the goalmouth by his defence.
Second Half
With no changes at halftime Maccabi emerged for the second half determined to try and get back into the game. In the 50th minute however, Maccabi’s defence struggled to deal with Ansah as the ball fell to Safuri who forced another save from Peretz. Biton sent a powerful left foot shot from the edge of the area that narrowly missed the target on 53.
But a minute after the hour mark Be’erhseva doubled their lead as the combination of Ansah and Safuri resulted with an unstoppable left foot shot that gave Peretz no chance and made it 2-0.
Van Leeuwen responded with a triple change on 67 as Eden Shamir, Matan Hozez and Osama Khalaila replaced Biton, Kuwas and Stipe Perica. Van Leeuwen made his fifth and final substitution on 85 as Eylon Almog replaced Gabi Kanichowsky for the final five minutes.
Almog came close to cut the deficit in the 90th minute as he sent a powerful header after an Ofir Davidzada square ball, but Harush pulled a reflex save to claw the ball out for a corner. Almog’s misery was complete seconds later as he was shown the red card by the referee inside injury time.
