Two first half goals from Yonatan Cohen (13) and Eylon Almog (45) led Maccabi to the seventh Super Cup in the club’s history as well as a place in the Toto Cup final.

 

Pre Match

With newly appointed Head Coach Georgios Donis and his coaching staff watching the match on TV from isolation – Maccabi’s players were handed a golden opportunity to make their impression on the Greek they trained under during the week. Performance Director, Patrick van Leeuwen, who guided the side to the 2-0 victory in the first leg, made three changes from the team which scored two away goals at Teddy stadium.

New signing Ben Bitton was handed his debut appearance against his former club on the right side of defense at the expense of Maor Kandil. Eden Kartzev replaced Avi Rikan in midfield while Yonatan Cohen stepped-in for Eduardo Guerrero upfront alongside Nick Blackman. Tal Ben Chaim was named for the first time in the squad, waiting for his chance to mark his return since rejoining from Sparta Prague.

First Half

It took Maccabi 13 minutes to break the deadlock as Yonatan Cohen did so in spectacular style to open his account for the season. The high pressure on Be’ersheva’s defense saw Nick Blackman pick Dor Peretz on the edge of the visitors’ area, before the skipper on the night flicked the ball to Cohen who blasted a left-foot drive that rocketed past Ohad Lewita to hit the roof of the net.

Naor Sabbag tried testing Daniel Tenenbaum with a long range effort on 25 but narrowly missed the target. At the opposite end, Cohen and Peretz exchanged roles only to see Peretz’s shot sliced agonizingly wide.

In the 40th minute, Matan Baltaxa almost doubled the lead as he rose unmarked to head Eylon Almog’s corner but with Lewita well beaten Qais Ganem clear the ball off his line. Maccabi’s efforts were rewarded in the 44th minute as Blackman released Almog whose shot went in off the post to make it 2-0.

Second Half

Maor Kandil replaced Ofir Davodzada at the restart before Peretz and Dan Glazer made way for Avi Rikan Eduardo Guerrero 10 minutes later, Ronen Hanzis replaced Blackman on 63. Tal Ben Chaim was given 19 minutes to make his debut as he came in for Almog in the 71st minute.

Seven minutes from time Ben Chaim whipped in a cross which both Cohen and Hanzis failed to connect on to, and Rikan had two shots float over the crossbar. Ben Chaim could have marked a memorable debut on 85 only to see Lewita clear his close range effort with his feet. The full time whistle sent the hosts to the podium as club captain Sheran Yeini lifted the Super Cup which was his personal 12th trophy as a senior Maccabi player.

 

 

“Every match should be approached separately. We will arrive at tomorrow’s game fully focused and with the utmost seriousness, said Rikan, “We would like to do well in any way, especially as this is the first title of the season, but we are at the beginning of our way, have a new coaching staff, and every player would like to stake a claim for their place. The match is very important for us so that we could start the season with a title and will do everything to ensure it happens”.

“I played under many coaches and every time you must prove yourself and adapt yourself to different requirements. We will need to adapt ourselves to the new coaching staff. We are all hoping that it would go well, that we will succeed and hopefully this would lead us to titles”

Maccabi Tel Aviv FC and Real Zaragoza reached an agreement for the sale of Jair Amador who will return to Spain after two years in Israel.

Amador, joined Maccabi in July 2018 and won two successive league titles, a Toto Cup and The Super Cup, making 72 appearances in the Yellow and Blue strip.

After two successful seasons at Maccabi, Zaragoza made an offer to purchase the player and the club agreed to Jair’s request to return to Spain in order to be by his family’s side.

Gracias y buena suerte

Maccabi Tel Aviv FC is happy to announce the appointment of Georgios Donis as the Head Coach of the first team after the 50-year-old Greek who coached at Panathinaikos in the past two years, signed a one-year-deal with an option to extend by a further season.

 

 

Donis will be joined by a coaching staff which has been working with him for several years and that includes: Assistant Coach Makis Aggelinas, Miodrag Medan as a 2nd Assistant & Scouting, Goalkeeping Coach Panagiotis Maliaritsis, Georgios Georgiadis as an analyst and Grigoris Georgitsas as a Fitness Coach.

Born in Germany Donis, played for Panathinaikos as a midfielder and won two League Championships and three Greek Cups between 1991-96. He then moved to England and joined Blackburn Rovers (96/97), returned to Greece and played for one season at AEK (97/98) before returning to England and playing for Sheffield United (99) and Huddersfield Town (99/00) where he finished his playing career. Donis made 24 international appearances scoring five goals for the Greek national team between 1991-1997.

Donis began his coaching career in 2002 with Ilisiakos in the fourth division and within two seasons won promotion to the second division. In 2004 he was appointed at AEL and in his first season in charge won promotion with the Larissa based club to the top flight. The following season Donis and Larissa finished eighth in the table and won the Greek Cup beating Panathinaikos in the final. Donis and Larissa began the 2007/08 season with a European campaign on the way to the UEFA Cup group stages, and ended the season sixth in the table. 

After a six month period in 2008 as the coach of AEK Athens, Donis was appointed in 2009 as Head Coach of Atromitos and guided them to the Greek Cup Final twice in succession but didn’t win the trophy. Donis coached PAOK in the 2012/13 season before moving to Cyprus the following season to join APOEL Nicosia and guiding them to the double winning the Cypriot League and Cup. Donis successfully guided APOEL to the 2014/15 Champions League Group stage where they were drawn in a group with Barcelona, PSG and Ajax.

In 2015 Donis was appointment as manager of Al-Hilal as he guided the Saudi club to the semi Final of the AFC Champions League as well as victory in the Saudi King Cup of Champions. In 2016/17 Donis switched to the United Arab Emirates and managed Al-Sharjah before returning for second spells with APOEL Nicosia (17/18) and two more seasons with Panathinaikos (18/20) from where he is joining Maccabi.