Maccabi Tel Aviv celebrated their 23rd Championship on Sunday night at Live Park in Rishon Le’Zion. For the players and fans this was one of the highlights of the season as they looked back at the successful season that was.

Avi Rikan looked back at winning his first championship with Maccabi:
“To be honest, I have been here for some time and up until now I didn’t win a title. It was something that was missing for me and I had always said that I’m here to win titles and I’m glad it has finally happened. I’m happy that I finally won the championship and everyone will know that I achieved it here with Maccabi. We had a very convincing season, very dominant right from the start we knew what we were facing and we wanted to bring the club back to where it belongs and that’s to be the champions of Israel. We’re very proud. 

Dor Peretz talked about the bright future:
“I matured when I went on loan. Everyone dreams that if they are loaned out they return to Maccabi and come back big time. It’s a long journey, we saw this season that the homegrown players are good enough to represent the club and I think that if this is Maccabi’s future, the future is very good.” 

Yonatan Cohen spoke his personal story:
“I didn’t have an easy start to the season, but I didn’t work hard for three seasons when I was on loan for nothing – I worked hard to be ready for Maccabi. When I felt that I was really ready, I knew that I hadn’t given up on myself. I’m very happy to have proved that I can play and be part of a historical season. It was amazing. Coach and I had a good conversation at the start of the season, I felt that he believed in me and I believed in myself. Sometimes I asked myself what I’m doing here, but I’m happy I didn’t give up and I took the opportunity with both hands and made the most of it.”

Maor Kandil discussed his connection to the club and the fans:
“The truth is that I have been a Maccabi fan from a very young age, 6 years old. I would go to games (basketball) and I knew all of the songs. It’s a dream come true, my connection to the fans, all of it. Sometimes I go to sleep and I can’t believe that this is really happening. The fans really love and l receive a lot of compliments and messages. It’s a lot of fun.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv are the Champions! After 4 years it was time to celebrate and honor one of the greatest seasons in the history of Israeli football. The stage was set for the Official Championship Celebration as it took place on Sunday at Live Park Rishon Le’Zion as thousands of fans streamed into the facility.

The Yellow & Blue celebrated the League title for the first time in 4 years as comedian Yossi Gavni served as the host. During the evening the players were presented to the fans, the championship plate was lifted high in the air while EZ, Itay Levi and Hanan Ben Ari all performed.

Maccabi hosted their final home match of the season as the Yellow & Blue have two more contests, both of which are away at Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Beer Sheva.

Maccabi played 18 home matches which included 14 wins, 3 draws and one loss (last Matchday against Bnei Yehuda).

The home goal differential this season: 48:8 in favor of Maccabi.

Maccabi scored three goals against Maccabi Netanya after winning their last two matches by the score of 4:1. In other words, Maccabi has scored 11 goals and conceded just 2 in their last 3 contests against Netanya.

Congratulations are in order to Dan Glezer who scored his first goal wearing a Maccabi kit.

With the goal, Glezer became the 15th different player to score for Maccabi this season.

One player who is used to scoring goals this season is Dor Peretz who found the back of the goal for the 8th time in league play this campaign.

Peretz is on a goal scoring spree after putting the ball into the goal for the third straight match. The marker against Netanya was his second goal scored with his foot to go along with 6 headers.

Itay Shechter also scored his 8th goal of the season last night and it looks like he enjoys facing Netanya as his strike on Saturday was his 3rd against the Diamond City side.

Dor Micha who was awarded the League’s Player of the Season may not have played against Netanya but Yonatan Cohen who took his place assisted on Shechter’s goal.

That was Cohen’s 7th league assist of the season, moving him into second place on Maccabi’s assist leaders list (Eli Dasa has 6 assists).

18-year old Bar Cohen who came on as an 85th minute substitute made his Maccabi debut. In fact, Cohen began the play that led to the club’s 3rd goal scored by Dan Glezer.

Vladimir Ivic, the Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach summed up his squad’s 3:0 win over Maccabi Netanya as well as the official championship celebrations:

“Congratulations to all of our fans for the championship. It starts with the players and coaching staff as well as the office staff. It’s all of the people who are around us every day who help us deserve this championship. We worked very hard for this.”

Special moments this season:
“We had a lot of good moments and each point was important for me. It’s hard for me to choose one game or one moment. We can think of this season as one of the best in Maccabi’s history. But we still have to fight for every game and every point.”

About Dor Micha:
“He showed during the year that he is one of the important players for the team.”

Next season:
“We will try to work on our preparations for next season but we don’t know what will happen in June. New players will come and some will go which is natural for a club like Maccabi.”

Potential new players:
“We need to bring some players in some positions and we have spoken about that over the past number of months. We will make some movements but we will have to see.”

Will Rajkovic return:
“We don’t know yet. Normally we have 5-6 foreign players and we have to see.”

Improving:
“We have to improve a lot of things and we took the championship which was our target. We had some good moments but we need to improve on the ones that weren’t.”

Reaching the group stages of a European competition:
“If we have the possibility to do it, we will fight for it.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv officially lifted the 2018/19 Championship Plate following a 3:0 win over Maccabi Netanya. Itay Shechter scored in the 34’ while Dor Peretz and Dan Glezer found the back of the goal in the second half. On Sunday Maccabi will host the 23rd Championship celebrations at Live Park in Rishon Le’Zion.

Watch Maccabi lift the Championship Plate:

Head Coach Vladimir Ivic’s Starting XI included keeper Predrag Rajkovic, Eli Dasa, Jair Amador, Eitan Tibi, Sheran Yeini, Enric Saborit, Dan Glezer, Dor Peretz, Avi Rikan, Yonatan Cohen, Itay Shechter.

Available on the bench: Daniel Tenenbaum, Chico Ofoedu, Ofir Davidzada, Maor Kandil, Shahar Piven, Nadav Nidam, Bar Cohen.

First Half
Netanya had the first chance of the match when Moti Barshatzky tried to beat Rajkovic from a tough angled shot in the box but the Yellow & Blue keeper made the save. Rikan sent a nice cross to Cohen but Dani Amos made the stop. The Netanya keeper again was up to the task when he made the save on Peretz’s header via a Dasa cross.

In the 34’ Maccabi finally broke the ice when Cohen sent Shechter a nice pass as the latter headed home the ball for a 1:0 lead ahead of the half-time break.

Second Half
In the 50’ Shechter scored again via an individual effort, but VAR showed that the goal was offside. However, four minutes later Peretz scored a gorgeous goal from the left side when he rifled the ball by Amos and into the Netanya goal for a 2:0 lead.

Maccabi continued to control the pace of play as Cohen tried his luck on the 60’ but Amos made the stop. Five minutes later Ivic made his first substitute when Chico Ofoedu replaced Cohen while in the 78’ Vicki Kahlon was issued his 2nd yellow card, leaving Netanya with 10 men.

In the 83’ Ofoedu almost added to the lead but his effort came up short and in the 85’ Bar Cohen made his Maccabi debut in place of Rikan. During injury time Glezer scored his first goal in Yellow & Blue thanks to a counter attack led by Shechter as the midfielder scored from 17 meters to wrap up a 3:0 win.