Following Maccabi’s 2:1 (3:1 aggregate) victory over Maccabi Petah Tikva last night in the State Cup quarterfinals, the Yellow & Blue were drawn against Beitar Jerusalem in the semifinal round in a match that will take place at Sammy Ofer Stadium on either April 4-5.

This is Maccabi’s third season in a row in the State Cup semifinals after wining the Cup in 2014/15 against Hapoel Beer Sheva 6:2, while falling to Maccabi Haifa in last season’s final 1:0.

Maccabi has faced Beitar twice this season in league play. The first contest ended in a dramatic 2:2 draw while the second game was won by the Jerusalemites 1:0. The last time the two sides played each other in State Cup action was in the 2012/13 Round of 16 when Beitar won 2:0 at Bloomfield Stadium.

Gal Alberman, Maccabi Tel Aviv’s defensive midfielder spoke to the press following last night’s State Cup second leg Quarterfinal win over Maccabi Petah Tikva as the Club advanced to the semifinals for thee third straight season:

“There’s never an easy State Cup match but we wanted to advance to the next round and that was our main goal. I’m happy we did what we needed to.”

Changes coaches:

“We’re veteran players and we’ve gone through these types of things more than once the last few seasons. It’s the situation that we’re in and we know that changes can occur during the course of the campaign. This time it happened at a very critical moment of the season and we had to adjust quickly especially after dropping a lot of points where we shouldn’t have. We have no room for error.”

Playing well for the full 90 minutes:

“There’s no question that during some minutes of a match we don’t play as well as we should. We understand that and we have to play good football over the course of the full match. I’ve said it a bunch of times that we still have to improve our football.”

Being a leader:

“You know that I’m not someone that speaks about myself but I look for us to do the best as we can as a team.”

Midfielders having more responsibility:

“We’ve seen over the last few matches that our midfielders are becoming more a part of the match. But we are doing our job be it on the defensive or offensive side of the game.”

Handing over the Captain’s armband to Sheran Yeini:

“I haven’t addressed this until today, but I believe that one of the roles of a captain is to set an example. The minute that Sheran Yeini came back I only saw it fit that he should take the Captain’s armband as he was the most capable person for the role. He knows how to encourage his teammates and I decided to put my ego on the side for the best of the team and did it with all of my heart. To work as a team is the most important thing for any club and I’m happy to be his assistant, he’s really the best person for the job.”

Contact status:

“In the seven years I’ve been here, this is the 3rd time my contract is coming up. The last two times everything went fairly easy and I believe that there is interest from both sides. But right now we are so busy with so many tasks ahead, the league and the Cup and I’m sure we will come to some sort of agreement.”

Following Maccabi’s 2:1 (3:1 aggregate) victory over Maccabi Petah Tikva last night in the State Cup quarterfinals, the Yellow & Blue will take part in the semifinal draw at the Israel National Team headquarters this evening at 17:45 to find out the identity of their next opponent. The match will take place at Sammy Ofer Stadium on either April 4-5.

Following last night’s win, Maccabi will join Bnei Yehuda who advanced on Tuesday after defeating Ashdod, Beitar Jerusalem who took care of Kiryat Shemona and Cinderella story Hapoel Ramat Gan after they beat Hapoel Haifa in the quarterfinals.

This is Maccabi’s third season in a row in the State Cup semifinals after wining the Cup in 2014/15 against Hapoel Beer Sheva 6:2, while falling to Maccabi Haifa in last season’s final 1:0.

Lito Vidigal, the Yellow & Blue’s Head Coach guided his club into the semifinals of the Israel State Cup defeating Maccabi Petah Tikva 2:1, 3:1 on aggregate. The Angolan spoke about how his side performed, the players and the match that was:

“It was a tough game and we’ve played against this team a number of times in a short period of time. The know our team, but most importantly we won the game we moved onto the semifinals. This is how the Cup is and I spoke to the players about this. It’s also not easy to play just three days after the last game.”

Scoring and then giving up a goal:

“This is football. We scored and the next attack they scored too. But we did get a goal and we stayed organized and we had a good mentality. We knew that we needed to win to move on or go home. The players have a lot of experience and they knew how to move ahead.”

Fans as the 12th man:

“We played very well as a team. We are fighting together, they worked a lot and we deserved the victory. Sometimes some players can be the man of the match but most importantly is our 12th man. They gave us everything and when we gave up a goal they supported us. For us they were our best player today.”

Jordi on the bench:

“We are a team and we want to continue to get better. Everyone, from the players, the office staff and everyone else is important to the team. When you are afraid of somethings then maybe you have a problem. But if you do believe in making Maccabi a better club and better team then we all must work together.”

The two new Brazilian players:

“We have a lot of players who don’t play as well. They just arrived about twenty days ago and we have to help them improve and get better.”

Rajikovic and others playing well:

“The four defenders worked a lot and the goalkeeper was also amazing. But so was Vidar, Benayoun who had an amazing game and looked like he was 18 years old.”

Ben Chaim’s yellow card:

“We have to respect all of our opponents and we don’t have any easy games. Every team has quality and we take them very seriously. If you think like that it’s very dangerous.”

Looking ahead to Ashkelon:

“We will prepare for the next opponent and we have to work hard to take the next points against Ashkelon. We respect all of our opponents but we have to do the best against the next team.

It wasn’t easy, but the Yellow & Blue moved on to the Israel State Cup semifinals after defeating Maccabi Petah Tikva 2:1 (3:1 aggregate) thanks to goals by Vidar Kjartansson and a penalty by Oscar Scarione. Maccabi will learn who their next round opponent will be at Thursday’s draw.

Prematch
Head Coach Lito Vidigal made a number of changes to his Starting XI from his side’s 1:0 league victory over Bnei Yehuda this past Saturday night, however, one constant was Serbian keeper Predrag Rajikovic who was in goal. Eli Dasa, Eitan Tibi, Tal Ben Haim and Captain Sheran Yeini provided the defense while Gal Alberman, Eliel Peretz, Oscar Scarione and Yossi Benayoun rounded out the midfield with Dor Micha and Vidar Kjartansson providing the attack.

Available on the bench were keeper Daniel Lifshitz, Tal Ben Chaim, Egor Filipenka, Marcelo dos Santos, Barak Itzhaki, Yuval Shpungin and Ruben Micael.

First Half
Holding a 1:0 lead from the first leg, Maccabi looked to put away Petah Tikva early on in the contest as Alberman’s 7th minute screamer went flying over the goal. Twelve minutes later, Peretz and Kjaratansson combined to almost put the Yellow & Blue ahead but Petah Tikva just cleared the ball off of the line to keep the match goalless.

In the 25th minute, Scarione had a chance from 20 meters out after receiving a nifty pass from Yeini but his effort was saved by the Petah Tikva keeper. Ten minutes later, Scarione sent a corner kick to Tibi but his opportunity was cleared while in the 40th minute Dovev Gabbay’s scorcher was parried away by Rajikovic to keep the game even at 0:0 as the sides headed into the break.

Second Half
Maccabi looked to find the elusive first goal of the match and they did just that in the 50th minute thanks to the Icelandic striker Vidar Kjartansson. Micha sent the ball into Scarione, whose effort was stopped but the Icelander’s follow up strike found the back of the goal to give the Yellow & Blue a 1:0 lead.

However, the advantage only held for five minutes as Guy Melamed headed in a Dor Alo cross from the right side to draw even at 1:1. With Maccabi clinging on to a one goal aggregate lead, Angolan boss Lito Vidigal made his first substitution of the evening inserting Ruben Micael in favor of Peretz in the 61st minute.

With the visitors pressing, Rajikovic came up big making a huge save from just 7 meters out off of a Melamed chance to keep the score as is in the 65th minute. Vidigal then brought on winger Tal Ben Chaim in favor of Dor Micha a minute later while the Serbian shot stopper saved the day yet again when he punched away a Danino header in the 68th minute.

In the 77th minute, Scarione almost gave Maccabi the insurance marker they needed, but Gigi was up to the task and made the stop. Four minutes later Romario Pires picked up his second yellow and was sent off for a reckless tackle on Kjartansson leaving Petah Tikva with only ten men.

With both teams seeking a goal, Carlos Cuellar took down the Icelander in the box good for a penalty which Scarione promptly converted from the spot to put away the match and advance to the State Cup Semifinals where they will meet either Beitar Jerusalem, Bnei Yehuda or Hapoel Ramat Gan.

Watch, rank the goals and one lucky fan will win 300 NIS worth of HP Personalized Maccabi products. What are you waiting for? The ballot boxes close on Friday March 3rd at 13:00.

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The Yellow & Blue hold a 1:0 first leg lead as they face Maccabi Petah Tikva in the second leg tomorrow evening at the Netanya Stadium, 21:00 with one goal in mind; to advance to the Israel State Cup Semi-Finals. Maccabi Tel Aviv will enter match number two of the quarterfinals in good shape after a league win over Bnei Yehuda this past Saturday night. Midfielder Eliel Peretz who saw minutes in that contest, spoke to the Official Website: “We are coming into the match with confidence, but it really doesn’t say too much as we’ve only played half of this round and we have another full match to go. We have one mission ahead of us.”

About the opponent:
“We haven’t done anything special in preparing for this contest and we are getting ready exactly how we always do. We will be prepared for the type of game they like to play and their style. We will play our football and we want to continue the good run that we’ve had recently.”

Peretz continued on about Petah Tikva:
“This is a very tough club and it hasn’t been easy for us against them this season. They have been having a very good campaign so far and tomorrow won’t be a walk in the park. In my opinion anything can happen. If they score just one goal then they’ve drawn even with us. Of course, we are coming into the contest to win the match. We have to continue our positive momentum.”

New coach Lito Vidigal:
“There’s no question as every day goes by, we are understanding better and better the coach’s demands as well as his expectations. We are trying to implement what he wants as quickly as possible on the pitch.”