Maccabi Tel Aviv traveled to the Acre Stadium last night and recorded a 4:1 win over Bnei Sakhnin in the first leg of the State Cup quarterfinals. Just after the Yellow & Blue took hold of the two legged tie let’s look back at the most interesting numbers from the victory.

The stat of the week
For those who love statistics we’ve got a super one for you. The 4:1 win was the 5th time Maccabi scored four goals after drawing 1:1.

In September, the Yellow & Blue drew 1:1 at Hapoel Beer Sheva and then defeated Raanana 4:1. In December, Vladimir Ivic’s squad took out Ashdod 4:0 after a 1:1 draw against Maccabi Petah Tikva. Last month following a 1:1 Derby, Maccabi beat Hapoel Acre 4:0 and last night we had a 4:1 victory after a 1:1 draw against Hapoel Haifa.

If that’s not enough for you, we can go back to training camp when Maccabi drew 1:1 against Arka Gdynia and then defeated Bytovia Bytów 4:0. How about that!

Will Monday be a different story?
On Monday, Maccabi will visit Bnei Sakhnin once again but this time in league action. Past experiences will show that the Yellow & Blue have to be very careful regardless of the result on Wednesday night.

In 2015/16 Maccabi defeated Sakhnin in the State Cup semifinal and just four days later they went to Doha and drew 0:0 in a critical contest.

When Micha plays in the quarterfinals
Dor Micha’s wonderful goal was the talk of the town last night and was just the continuation of his fine play this season. In 64 minutes on the pitch, Micha scored his 4th goal in his last 7 matches while also recording 3 assists as well.

Micha has scored some gorgeous goals in State Cup quarterfinals including this one in 2015/16 (4:20 mark in the video below):

State Cup scorer
Yonatan Cohen was given a place in the Starting XI and scored a brace. So far in State Cup action he’s scored the winning goal against Beitar Jerusalem in the Round of 32, a brace against Hapoel Acre in the Round of 16 and another pair of markers versus Bnei Sakhnin in the first leg of the quarterfinals.

Cohen has 9 goals in 14 appearances across all competitions.

In fact, Cohen’s 9 goals have been scored in 744 minutes, for an average of a goal every 82.6 minutes. As for the Cup, Cohen has scored 5 goals in 183 minutes for an average of one goal every 36.6 minutes.

Is Saborit headed to Spain’s National Team?
Enric Saborit is putting up wonderful numbers this season and we’re sure that Spain coach Luis Enrique is watching (check out the tweet below). Saborit assisted on Chico Ofoedu’s goal, Maccabi’s first last night and also scored the lone Yellow & Blue goal against Hapoel Haifa.

Ofoedu has now scored 7 goals across all competitions and also assisted on one of Cohen’s goal for his second helper of the season.

Hi @LUISENRIQUE21, we know that you follow Maccabi but in case you missed @E_Saborit’s last goal it’s right here. So for your next match consider Saborit for the squad (by the way he also assisted today) pic.twitter.com/HAX0fECou4

— Maccabi Tel-Aviv (@MaccabiTLVFC) February 6, 2019

Yonatan Cohen, the Maccabi Tel Aviv striker looked back as his side’s 4:1 win over Bnei Sakhnin in the first leg of the State Cup quarterfinals:

“We made the match easy as we came in prepared. This is the first of two matches and we came in to make sure that we would have an advantage going into the next match. We’re now looking ahead to the league match on Monday.”

Working hard:
“We’re all ready to go because we work hard in every training session and you can see it on the pitch. When we have our opportunity we have to prove ourselves.”

Secret to Maccabi’s success:
“The coach makes sure that we are all ready and hungry and that’s our secret to our success.”

Coming in ready to go:
“We never take it easy going into a match and I’m sure that Sakhnin won’t make our lives easy on Monday. We will come ready to go to take another 3 points and I hope that we will win.”

The fans:
“The fans give us confidence especially in stormy weather and since the game wasn’t in the center of the country. I want to thank everyone and we’re happy with the victory.”

Dor Micha, the Yellow & Blue midfielder looked back at his side’s 4:1 State Cup quarterfinal win over Bnei Sakhnin in the first leg of a two legged tie:

“I didn’t really see the goal, but maybe the wind helped the ball go into the goal. I knew I was going to be substituted but that had nothing to do with the goal. I had some luck to score.”

True professionals:
“If you are a true professional then what’s required of you is not that difficult. We all know what is expected of us and if we don’t play well then there will be someone else who will be ready to replace us. So we are doing the maximum.”

Playing at the peak:
“We can still improve and we were not as good as we could have been the past month. It’s hard to play at such a high level for a whole season but I am sure in money time we will be at our peak.”

Focussing on our own play:
“At the start fo the year no one knew what would be and right now it’s easy to say that the league is weak. The other teams had good squads going into the season. We are focussing on our own play and that’s how we will continue.”

Vladimir Ivic, the Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach summed up his squad’s 4:1 victory against Bnei Sakhnin at the Acre Stadium in the first leg of the Israel State Cup quarterfinals:

“There was a lot of wind and rain which are unusual conditions for Israel, but we played a disciplined game and we deserved the victory.”

Playing at a high level for all 90 minutes:
“I believe that we were strong today and played at a high level and we were serious from the first to last second of the game. We have to continue that way.”

Many matches to go:
“It’s not easy for sure. We have worked hard to be where we are now and we have a lot of games in front of us.”

Improving:
“Game by game we want to improve and to be better in the next game. We have to analyze the previous games and work on some mistakes. We have done this from the beginning of the year and will do so until the end of the season.”

Winning all of the titles:
“We work for all the titles and that was our target at the start of the season. We have a lot of games left and another game to get to the semifinals. There are still 45 point left in the championship race.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated Bnei Sakhnin 4:0 in the first leg of the Israel State Cup quarterfinals at the Acre Stadium. A brace by Yonatan Cohen and single markers by Chico Ofoedu and Dor Micha gave the Yellow & Blue the victory. Shuaibu Ibrahim scored the lone marker by the host’s. The second leg will be played later in the month on February 26th at the Netanya Stadium.

Head Coach Vladimir Ivic’s Starting XI included Predrag Rajkovic, Eli Dasa, Shahar Piven, Sheran Yeini, Enric Saborit, Ruslan Barsky, Dor Micha, Dan Glezer, Omer Atzili, Chico Ofoedu, Yonatan Cohen.

Available of the bench: Daniel Tenenbaum, Ophir Davidzada, Avi Rikan, Dor Peretz, Jair Amador, Itay Shechter, Eliran Atar.

First Half
The match began in wintery weather with rain and wind at the Acre Stadium but it didn’t take long for Maccabi to get on the scoreboard. In the 13’ Micha sent a tremendous through ball to Saborit who passed it to Ofoedu in the middle of the box and put it home for a 1:0 lead.

The Yellow & Blue continued to press for a second goal when Cohen tried his luck from long distance, however, the Sakhnin shot stopper Matan Amber was up to the task in the 24’. But the host’s weren’t able to hold off Ivic’s side in the 29’ when Atzili stole the ball in the middle of the pitch and it mades its way to Cohen who beat the keeper for a 2:0 advantage.

Maccabi didn’t take their foot off of the gas and added another goal in the 41’ when Cohen took advantage of a poor clearance by Amber off a Dasa cross and scored from in close for his second of the match as the Yellow & Blue took a 3:0 lead into the break.

Second Half
Ivic made one change to begin the second half as he inserted Jair Amador for Yeini. In the 52’ Ofoedu crossed the ball to Aztili but his header went over the bar, while five minutes later Atzili and Cohen each had chances but couldn’t find the back of the goal.

Micha joined the goal scoring parade when he turned on the goal line and flicked the ball up in the air, over the Sakhnin keeper and into the goal for a 4:0 advantage. Immediately following the goal Avi Rikan replaced Micha and Ophir Davidzada was inserted into the match in favor of Saborit.

Mahran Radi had a couple of opportunities but Rajkovic made the saves in the 67’ and 70’. However, its would be Shuaibu Ibrahim who would find the back of the goal when he stole the ball near the Maccabi goal and scored cutting the lead to 4:1.

To date Maccabi has played 51 times in the State Cup Quarterfinals. Before the founding of the State the Yellow & Blue featured 12 times and after 39 times. A fascinating statistic is that 46 of the 51 times Maccabi advanced to the Semifinals.

There have been 11 Quarterfinals in which two matches were played (3 before the founding of the State). Seven of those were two legged ties and the other 4 were replays after the first match ended in a draw.

Other than the 1973 quarterfinal (0:0 and 2:1 loss to Maccabi Petah Tikva), Maccabi has advanced in their last two match quarterfinal series.

Maccabi has met Bnei Sakhnin three times in Cup play over the years. Maccabi won a semifinal bout in 2016 but lost to Sakhnin twice, in the 2007 Round of 16 and the 2004 quarterfinals on penalties.

The biggest win in quarterfinal play was 6:0 three times: Hapoel Hadera in 1955, Haporl Pardes Chana in 1962 and Kiryat Shemona in 2002.

3 players have scored quarterfinal hat-tricks: Eliezer Vilensky in 1962 (6:0) against Pardes Chana, Moshe Griani in 1987 (3:1) over Maccabi Jaffa and Rodrigo Goldberg in 2002 (6:0) against Kiryat Shemona.

Benny Tabak and Eli Driks scored the most goals in the quarterfinals – 6 each.

This month will see the Yellow & Blue play Bnei Sakhnin three times (2 State Cup, 1 League) and history shows that Maccabi has faced the same opponent three times just twice.

December 1961 – 3 Cup matches (Round of 16) against Shimshon Tel Aviv (before penalties decided matches and replays were played). After two draws, Maccabi won 4:1 in the 3rd contest.

August 2009 – Sakhnin once again (twice in the Toto Cup, once in League play) – 2 wins and a draw.

2016/17: Maccabi Petah Tikva – Maccabi Tel Aviv
In 2016/17 the State Cup quarterfinals were also played over two legs and Petah Tikva hosted the first match at the Moshava Stadium. In the 76’ winger Tal Ben Chaim had one of those magnificent moments that made announcer Yonatan Cohen jump out of his seat. WATCH:

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