Kristijan Belic must have wished for a better outcome as he had dozens of friends and family members at the TSC Arena in Backa Topola for the Europa League MD2 home match against Dinamo Zagreb. But the 24-year-old Belgian born Serbian midfielder saw his side take an early lead on the way to a 3-1 defeat. “It is a painful defeat” he said after the match, “I think we controlled the game well for most of it, but it’s not enough. We need to create more, be more aggressive in the final third. We didn’t give them much, but they took what they had, and at this level every opportunity is important.”

On the back of last week’s 0-0 draw away to PAOK Thessaloniki, Belic, and his teammates were looking for their first victory of the Europa League phase, as he reflected: “In both matches we showed that we can play at this level. We play with a lot of courage on the ball, and that is also the reason mistakes happen. But I think people enjoy watching our matches. We are an entertaining team in my opinion. But it is not enough, though, we need to win and get more out of the games. If we had managed to keep the lead another 5–10 minutes, I’m sure we would have scored a second, and then we could have won the game because they would have become much more impatient.”

On the challanges some of his teams had to endure following the Yom Kippur fast that preceded the match, Belic surprised when he revealed: “It’s hard, of course it’s hard. They fast, but they had special energy from God. I will do it today. I am going to fast from Friday evening until Saturday evening. In my calendar, Yom Kippur is on Friday night, so I will fast for 24 hours. I will experience the same thing.”

Maccabi now return to league action as they host Maccabi Haifa on Sunday, as Belic said: “We knew this before qualifying for Europe, and we need to tell ourselves mentally that we are not tired. We need to find motivation, and we know there are players who didn’t go out on international duty so they’ll have time to recover, so we will need to push ourselves. And we’re also returning to Bloomfield. I think if we had taken the lead at Bloomfield in Europe, we wouldn’t have conceded like that we have another player on the pitch there. I can proudly say that everyone here gave everything. Sometimes in football that’s enough, and sometimes it isn’t.”

Abu Farchi, who made his Europa League debut start, was first asked about the goal he scored and whether he could have wished for a better start. He answered: “It’s a great feeling to score, but I could have wished to win the game. Unfortunately, we didn’t do that, we move forward.”

On Maccabi’s performance he added: “In the second half we created chances, we just needed someone to put in the second goal, and then maybe the third and fourth would have come too. But that’s football, nothing to be done.”

About his preparation for the match, the 19-year-old striker shared: “I didn’t tell my parents I was starting, because my father would have kept talking to me about it, he lives football 24/7. I prepared well for the match and I’m happy I scored.”

Finally, when asked if he thinks he deserves more minutes, he replied: “Do I deserve it? I think so, but in the end it’s the coach’s decision, and I accept all the decisions. I’ll keep working hard, I hope to get my chances in the future and make the most of them”.

Preview

Maccabi returned to the TSC Arena in Backa Topola where they hosted the entire qualification campaign ahead of the first Europa League phase home match against Dinamo Zagreb. On the back of two 0-0 draws away to PAOK in Thessaloniki on MD1 and Bnei Sakhnin in the league, Maccabi will aim to return to winning ways. But Zarko Lazetic’s which will aim to win the first three points of the league phase this season will have their work cut out for themselves as the match kicks off two hours after the Yom Kippur fast. With a large number of Maccabi’s squad observing the day of Atonement and holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Lazetic shuffled his side.

Roi Mishpati who was the man of the match during the draw in Athens last week, kept his place in goal. Ali Camara and Heitor were the two central defenders at the heart of Maccabi’s defense lining up in front of the 32-year-old custodian. Roy Revivo who wa suspended against Bnei Sakhnin returned to the side with Tyrese Asante completing Maccabi’s defensive line on the right. Issouf Sissokho and Ben Lederman were assigned to the midfield engine room with Kristijan Belic assigned to a more attacking role. Kervin Andrade and Helio Varela supplied the width to Maccabi’s formation in support of Saied Abu Farchi who at the age of 19 led the attack in what is his first European start and fifth appearance in all competitions this season.

On the bench alongside goalkeeper Yoav Gerafi and Ofek Melika, Lazetic named Sagiv Jehezkel, Raz Shlomo, Denny Gropper, YOnas Malede, Elad Madmon, Noam Ben Harush, Itamar Noy, Itay Ben Hemo, Dor Peretz, Osher Davida and Ion Nicolaescu.

First Half

The cold weather conditions which welcomed both teams at the TSC Arena at Backa Topola must have had an effect o the start of the game as neither managed to cause any serious threat on goal. In the 14th minute however Maccabi that seemed to launch all its’ attacks from the right via Helio Varela, took the lead. Varela received the ball deep inside Dinamo Zagreb’s half and squared it to Ben Lederman who slipped it for Saied Abu Farchi. The 19-year-old striker who raced into the box managed to get the slightest of touches to squeeze his shot under the advancing keeper Ivan Nevistic and roll in to put Maccabi in front. It didn’t take the visitors too long to get back on level terms as Dinamo equalized two minutes later.

Josip Misic carved Maccabi’s defense open with a through ball to Mateo Lisica who blasted a right foot shot into the top corner giving Roi Mishpati no chance. Dinamo completed their comeback in the 19th minute as Moris Valincic broke into the box from the right and squared to Dejan Ljubicic who turned and found the bottom corner between Mishpati and the post to make it 2-1. Dinamo continued their good spell and almost scored a third on 25 as Aber Hoxha skipped past Tyrese Asante before cutting inside and curling a dangerous shot which narrowly missed the target.

Maccabi continued to look dangerous on the right as Varela’s bursting skill and pace took him past Bruno Goda right on the hour mark but his attempt of a square ball was blocked by Dinamo’s defense for a corner which was cleared. 

Dinamo kept moving the ball around trying to find another opening but the midfield trio of Kristijan Belic, Lederman and Issouf Sissokho managed to handle everything the Croatians threw at them. In defense, Heitor, Ali Camara and Roy Revivo were able to keep the visitors from having another go at Mishpati’s goal before the halftime whistle was heard.

Second Half

With no changes to either side at halftime both sides return to the pitch for the second period in a bid to try and score more goals. Two minutes after the hour mark Kervin Andrade had a sight of goal but his right foot effort from the edge of the area sailed wide. A minute later Lazetic made a triple change as Raz Shlomo came on for Heitor, Dor Peretz replaced Lederman and Osher Davida replaced Abu Farchi. Peretz was making his 400th appearance in all competitions and 81st in Europe moving to three appearances behind record holder Sheran Yeini.

Within a minute Mishpati was at full stretch to push out Beljo’s powerful right foot drive before collecting another shot by the Zagreb striker in the 66th minute. Two minutes later Lazetic made his fourth substitution of the game adding a fresh pair of legs Sagiv Jehezkel replaced Varela. But in the 72nd minute a Zagreb counter attack left Dejan Ljubicic in acres of space before he picked his spot and curled a right foot shot beyond the reach of Mishpati to score his second on the night and Dinamo’s third. 

Elad Madmon replaced the tired Revivo in the 78th minute as Lazetic made his fifth and final change for the closing stages. Andrade had another shot on goal in the 84th minute but once again the Venezuelan winger couldn’t get his shot on target. In the 88th minute Madmon’s powerful right foot shot threatened to cut the deficit but forced Nevisitic to save before keeping out a Jehezkel shot a minute later.

After kicking off the Europa League phase campaign with a 0-0 draw away to PAOK in Thessaloniki, Maccabi left today (Tuesday) for Serbia ahead of the match against Croatia’s Dinamo Zagreb.

A day before the start of Yom Kippur, which will be spent by the team in Serbia, the squad arrived at Ben Gurion Airport from where their flight to the Balkans took off. Tomorrow morning, the team will return the TSC Arena in Backa Topola where they hosted the entire qualifying campaign, hold their pre-match Press Conference followed by the final training session before the first “home” match of the League phase.

Having collected the first point in Greece last week, Maccabi will face Dinamo Zagreb on the back of Sunday’s 0-0 draw away to Bnei Sakhnin.

Dinamo, on the other hand, began their Europa League phase with a 3-1 victory over Fenerbahçe at the Maximir stadium in Zagreb.

Maccabi and Dinamo share some history, as their first encounter took place in the first round of the 2001/02 UEFA Cup. Back then, Maccabi advanced to the next stage on the away goals rule, after drawing 2-2 in Zagreb and a 1-1 draw in the match held in Israel.

“To be honest we didn’t start the game that badly, we created chances we should have converted, his the crossbar and the post. We knew that if we didn’t score by the end of the first half it would be difficult,” Shahar said. “This is a very tough pitch against a team that knows how to stay organized. Unfortunately, we didn’t take advantage of it. Even at the end, there were chances to win the match. A bit of bad luck, but we must lift our heads and move on to the next game.”

Shahar, who was injured in a tackle by Jordan Otanga, who was also sent off, was asked about his condition and said: “Terrible, I can hardly put weight on my foot. It’s part of the game, but I felt it was a bad challenge. It hurt a lot even during the match, but I hope it’ll be okay.”

When asked what made it hard for Maccabi to create a flow of chances, he replied: “I think one of the reasons we struggled to really dominate the field is that with every attack they kept falling on the ground, and we couldn’t get into a rhythm and flowing play. That’s not an excuse though, because we should have scored from the chances we had.”

On whether it was difficult to switch from the match against PAOK Thessaloniki to the one in Doha, he added: “No. At Maccabi we’re used to playing in Europe, and today we had fresh players. We did our maximum to win, we didn’t look back for even a second.”

Finally, when asked about preparing for the upcoming match against Dinamo Zagreb, scheduled right after Yom Kippur, he said: “It’s not an ideal preparation. All of us Israelis will be together in the hotel, and after the fast we’ll go straight to the pitch. But we have a deep squad, with foreigners who don’t fast, and I’m sure they’ll be at peak energy. Of course, it won’t be an excuse, we’re coming to win that game.”