One of the most satisfied players at the end of the match that saw the Yellow & Blue advance to the UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE Group Stages was none other than the decisive goal scorer Avi Rikan who helped Maccabi reach the groups stages of the competition for the third time in their history.

“It was tough,” Rikan explained. “Anyone that was in this stadium with the amazing atmosphere would understand how wonderful it was to play football in this environment. We didn’t want to get to penalties but I’m happy we were able to make it to the group stages,” number 22 said.

Coming off of the each in extra-time:

“The truth is that I live the match from the bench. If you know me a bit even when I don’t play I’m totally into the action and I want to club to win. I got into the thick of things very quickly. I’m happy that I was able to help out and score the decisive penalty. I came into the match late and I couldn’t really have an effect on the outcome during the extra-time period. I’m happy that I scored the penalty. We had four very tough games on the way to this point and tonight was the pinnacle. We’ll celebrate a bit now and then get ready for Ashdod on Monday.”

The moment that he scored the penalty:

“As soon as I saw that the Hajduk player missed I knew that I would score. I put the ball on the spot and I stepped up to take the kick with all of my heart. Some of the players had played 90 minutes a few days ago, it wasn’t easy but we will enjoy it now.”

For the third time in their history, Maccabi Tel Aviv will take part in the group stages of the UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE following a dramatic victory on penalties last evening against Hajduk Split in the playoff round. 

Today, the group stage draw took place in Monaco as Maccabi were in ranked in Pot 3 and it was determined that they would face in Group D:

Zenit St. Petersburg (Russia)

Alkmaar (Holland)

Maccabi Tel Aviv

Dundalk (Ireland)

The first match will be held on September 15th while the match calendar will be available soon.

In response to the EUROPA League group stage draw, Maccabi Tel Aviv’s coach Shota Arveladze told the club’s official website: “We were informed of the draw results on the plane whilst making our way back from Split. Zenit St Petersburg, AZ Alkmaar and Dundalk is by all means a very tough draw as both Zenit and AZ are the top two teams in each one of their respective pots as far as coefficient ranking. Dundalk on the other hand are ranked bottom of their pot but make no mistake as they are a stubborn side which knocked Bate Borisov out of the Champions League qualifiers both this season and last season. Alkmaar will be an emotional return for me to a club I spent time both as a player and a coach, while Zenit is one of the strongest teams in Europe who play at one of the prettiest cities in the world”.

Shota Arveladze discussed his side’s crucial penalty win against Hajduk Split at the Stadion Poljud as he spoke about the importance of advancing to the group stages for the fans, the player selection and of course the atmosphere:

“The atmosphere was something spectacular and that’s what is great about football. I have to give credit to the Hajduk supporters. But a Club like Hajduk definitely needs a proper pitch, it was terrible and you can’t play properly on it. The supporters and the team deserve better.”

About the match:

“In general we never lost control of the game, perhaps we could have done more defensively and it was hard offensively, but everyone struggled.”

Hajduk’s set pieces:

“The games I saw from Hajduk showed that they didn’t have many set pieces, but they delivered the ball well and we could have defended better but we had more goals at the end of the day.”

Advancing to the group stages:

“It was the first target we had, but 8 games were too hard and long. Years ago it was easier. We are happy to reach the Europa League and Maccabi deserved it as well.”

Player selection due to the poor pitch:

“We were all disappointed as the pitch didn’t look that bad on TV when we watched some of their games, but we had to be aware that every second the ball could bounce all over. However, we didn’t change the Starting XI because of the poor pitch. I have to give the boys credit for a hard game and really tough work throughout the full match.”

The importance of making it to the Europa League for the fans:

“Last year we had the Champions League and the players love football as do the fans. It can create a great atmosphere for Tel Aviv and it gives us another 3 games at home and 6 games in total. I am waiting for this great atmosphere as we’ve moved to the new stadium and I’m looking forward to that very much, for the team and the fans.”

The Yellow & Blue are through! After a nail bitter in Split Maccabi came away with a 4:3 penalty victory as Avi Rikan a late substitute scored the decisive spot kick. Oscar Scarione scored in the second half while Marko Cosic scored a brace for the hosts, however it was his moss that allowed Rikan to out through the winner.

Head Coach Shota Arveladze made numerous changes to the Starting XI that graced the Netanya Stadium pitch last week for the first leg of the Europa League Playoff Round where the Yellow & Blue defeated Hajduk Split 2:1. However, that didn’t include the keep position as Serbian Predrag Rajikovic was in his usual place while a defensive quartet of Eli Dasa, Eitan Tibi, Tal Ben Haim and Omri Ben Harush played in front of him. Haris Medunjanin, Nosa Igiebor and Oscar Scarione manned the midfield while Yossi Benayoun, Eden Ben Basat and Dor Micha who was the acting captain provided the attack.

Available on the bench were Haviv Ohayon, Egor Filipenka, Avi Rikan, Baral Itzhaki, Dor Peretz, Eyal Golasa and Orlando Sa.

First Half

Ben Basat has Maccabi’s first chance of the evening as his long range effort was easily collected by Lovre Kalinic in the 10th minute. Seven minutes later Rajikovic pulled down a Hajduk corner while he made a save off a ball from the left side in the 25th minute to keep the match goalless.

Following a 31st minute yellow card issued to Micha a pair of Split corner kicks couldn’t find the goal as the second went flying over the bar. In the 39th minute, defender Ben Haim was booked for a reckless tackle and Hajduk made Maccabi pay on the ensuing free kick as a defensive lapse gave Marko Cosic the chance to head the ball past Rajikovic for a 1:0 lead late in the first half.

As the fourth official indicated two minutes of injury time, Ben Basat missed a wonderful opportunity as his shot went just over Kalinic’s goal. The sides headed into the break with the hosts holding a 1:0 advantage.

Second Half

The Yellow & Blue evened things up fairly quickly as Scarione scored on a brilliant free kick from the left side of the box, fooling everyone including Kalinic as the ball found its way behind the keeper in the 50th minute. However, it didn’t take long for Hajduk to take the lead again as Susic’s 59th minute free kick found Cosic in the box as Split’s number 44 headed it into the back of Rajikovic’s goal.

Scarione and Igiebor teamed up for a 60th minute opportunity but the latter’s attempt went wide right of the goal. Again it was Scarione in the 72nd minute with a good effort but his shot also went wide.

Coach Arveladze makes his first substitution of the game as Orlando Sa comes on for Yossi Benayoun in the 81st minute. Franck Ohandza’s 85th minute opportunity for Hajduk went wide left as both sides looked for a winner late in the contest, however it would not be as the match went into extra-time.

Extra-time First Period

In the 94th minute Rajikovic was called upon to make a magnificent save after a fast break by Ohandza while one minute later Igibeor’s opportunity just went wide left to keep the score 3:3 on aggregate. After a 99th minute yellow card to Dasa, Raijkovic again came to the rescue making a point blank stop on Tino Susic’s attempt.

Extra-time Second Period

Avi Rikan entered the match to begin the second extra-time period for Ben Basat while Barak Itzhaki joined him in the 114th minute in favor of Micha as number 10 took the captain’s armband, but after a goalless extra-time the match headed into penalties.

Penalties

Hajduk Vlasic scores 1:0
Maccabi Itzhaki scores 1:1
Hajduk Tudor save Raijkovic 1:1
Maccabi Ben Haim save Kalinic 1:1
Hajduk Ohandza miss 1:1
Maccabi Scarione save Kalinic 1:1
Hajduk Savvas scores 2:1
Maccabi Sa scores 2:2
Hajduk Susic scores 3:2
Maccabi Medunjanin scores 3:3
Hajduk Cosic miss 3:3
Maccabi Rikan scores 3:4

Maccabi advances to the Europa League Group Stages! The draw will take place tomorrow, Friday in Monaco at 14:00.

Dor Micha, the Yellow & Blue number 15 looked ahead to tonight’s crucial decisive matchup against Hajduk Split at the Stadion Puljud. The midfielder discussed the pitch condition, playing to win and the goals that the Club had set for themselves:

“This was one of the goals that the team set for themselves at the start of training camp, to advance to the Europa League group stages. We have one more game to go in order to reach that target and it will be difficult, but we have to do it.”

About the pitch condition:

“It’s not in great shape, but it’s no excuse, not for us and not for them. From what we’ve all heard the atmosphere here will be great for the match and it’s always terrific to play football in this type of situation. It should be a great game.”

The absence of winger Tal Ben Chaim:

“He’ll be missed as he’s one of our most important players, it we have enough experienced players and a large squad for times like this. I’m sure we will be fine.”

Playing to win:

“It’s clear that we didn’t come here just to play for a result, we came to win. When you try to do these types of things it never ends well. We showed in Netanya that we are the better team and we will do the maximum in order to win the game.”

45-60:

Maccabi Tel Aviv enters the second leg of the Europa League Playoff Round after winning their first match last week 2:1 at the Netanya Stadium. Every victory is a good victory, however, the away goal that the Yellow & Blue gave up could be critical when the two sides face each other at the Stadion Poljud. The goal that was given up in the second half was even more painful as Maccabi dominated in almost every aspect of the game including ball possession with a 70%-30% advantage as well as shots on target with a 14-3 and corner kicks 13-2.

We all recall how dynamic the Yellow & Blue were over the first half, but the weakest moments for Shota Arveladze’s squad were between the 45-60th minute mark. Pay attention to the graphs below that breakdown the match into 15 minute blocks of time:

Maccabi is shown in red (please excuse the statistics company for their choice of color) and they controlled every element of the match except during these 15 minutes of play. Perhaps the Challenges graph is most telling. The reason the graph shows that Split won more challenges in the first half is that Maccabi possessed the ball for 74% of the time and therefore would lose more balls than the defending side. But during the 45-60th minutes of the contest, Hajduk dictated the pace of the game and Maccabi failed to raise their level of aggressiveness which translated into them not having control.

Balance the Wings:

Over the course of the last match between the clubs, Maccabi attacked 35 times from the left wing, 34 from the center and 28 times from the right side. Due to the absence of winger Tal Ben Chaim because of yellow card accumulation it can be assumed that the attack won’t be predominantly from the left side of the pitch. This is where the players in the center and the right side where Dor Micha plays will be more important in the upcoming clash.

The gifted midfielder had three key passes in the first match, along with one very dangerous pass and put two balls into the key area out of four attempts. It will be interesting to see where the bulk of the Maccabi attacks from the wings will come from and how it will be reflected on the amount of the offensive actions that will come from the sides.

The “Poljud” Effect:

36,000 people can enter the home stadium of Hajduk Split, an old style facility with an athletic track and an athletic club right next door, however, the Torcida supporters group makes sure that there is a good atmosphere for football. Interestingly enough the fans are not just the only factor that will play a part at the stadium.

Last night the players had their final pre-match training session and they had a chance to see what kind of poor state the Hajduk home pitch was in to say the least. This was due to a concert series last month that took place on the field. The damage in turn resulted in a ban of any future events at the stadium other than football as it still may take another one to two months for the pitch to be back up to par.

How will it play a factor? A number of balls changed direction due to the lumps on the field and the style of play may change a bit where long passes may play a key factor, a style that is found quite often on pitches of this type.

Maccabi’s technical players that base their play on ball possession will have to come into the match fully focussed and concentrated in order to not only battle their rivals and the fans but also the pitch as well.

The small details:

Counterattack – Marijan Pusnik’s side had 12 fast-break/counterattacks in the first match against Maccabi Tel Aviv. It’s likely that this game will be played similarly with the speedy Bosnian Tino Susic and the rest of his teammates. Interestingly, Susic received the most passes from any one player and that was from keeper Lovre Kalinic.

Taking advantage of the situation – Shota Arveladze’s squad can come into this game a bit more comfortably than they did in the first encounter. Even though the away goal that they gave up changed the game plan, if Maccabi can convert more of their chances (that included 14 shots on goal with six on target last match) then the away goal will not play a big factor.

Crossing accuracy – The Yellow & Blue need to improve their crossing accuracy from the wings. In the last match only 3 of 15 crosses hit their mark, a stat that needs some improvement.