Head Coach Peter Bosz and central defender Carlos Garcia were present for the pre-match press conference prior to the Yellow-and-Blue’s Israel State Cup semifinal match versus Bnei Sakhnin in Haifa at Sammy Ofer Stadium. The Dutch coach spoke about the past few matches and how he wants to see his club play:

“I have only one experience playing Bnei Sakhnin and that match was tough with 5 men on defense and they played a compact game. I was happy we won but I’m sure the game on Thursday will be difficult but we will work hard in order to get a good result.”

Sakhnin has given up a lot of goals recently:

“I always try to look at my own team. If they have conceded a lot of goals over the past few games that doesn’t mean that they will against us. We have to concentrate and focus on our own players. We have to create more chances and get more goals.”

Differences between the match against Haifa and Beitar:

“I agree that there was a big difference between the game we played against Beitar Jerusalem and Maccabi Haifa. It was about how we did it. Our tempo was much higher against Beitar. We were more creative and we have to look at ourselves and focus on our own game. The way we played against Beitar is how we have to play and how we want to play.”

The opportunity to win two prizes:

“I’m excited. It’s all about winning and I’m excited to have a chance to win. We have two competitions that we can win the Cup and the League, but we haven’t won anything yet. We will have to work hard as we have a chance for both of these two prizes.”

Final words:

“We will play our own game and they know that we will attack so we will see in two days.”

Carlos Garcia also discussed the upcoming match:

On not being available for last year’s final:

“It was tough that I was injured and I couldn’t help the team in the final. I was happy we won the Cup but even if I don’t play and we win the Cup, I will be happy as well. The team is most important and we are going to try and win the cup again.”

The Championship Playoffs second round of matches begin at the beginning of next week when Maccabi Tel Aviv visits Doha Stadium for a tough away match against Beni Sakhnin. The first playoff match between the two sides ended 1:0 in favor of the Yellow-and-Blue with an 80th minute goal by Eran Zahavi. Monday night at 20:55, Doha Stadium, the players will be waiting fir your help.

Ticket sales for season ticket holders begins this evening, Tuesday April 19th at 18:30 and will continue until Wednesday at 16:00. Should tickets remain the sale of tickets will be open to general public at that time.

IMPORTANT! Each season ticket holder may purchase up to 2 tickets.

Ticket Prices:

Via telephone *8780/Internet: 60 NIS
Via Leaan Ticket Office, 101 Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv: 55 NIS

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Ticket Collection:

Leaan Ticket Office, 101 Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv Sunday-Thursday 09:00-19:00, Friday 09:00-13:30

On Matchday at the Stadium ticket windows beginning 3 hours prior to the match until 45 minutes after the start of the match.

The Yellow-and-Blue dropped down to second place following a 0:0 draw on Matchday 31 at Sammy Ofer Stadium in Haifa. Following the Championship playoff clash, Maccabi Tel Aviv’s coach Peter Bosz spoke about the match:

“I saw one attacking team and one that only played defense. Maccabi Haifa had all of their players defending and they worked hard so it’s always difficult to find an opening when the other club didn’t come to play football.”

Moving back to second place:

‘Like I said last week, for me it’s most important to be in first place in Matchday 36. We knew that this was going to be in a tough match and the battle for the title is nowheres near over. I don’t believe that the match between us in two Matchdays will decide the championship. Pressure? No. We’re not under any pressure at all.”

About the effort his players showed this match and against Beitar Jerusalem:

“We knew we would be playing a tough match against a good opponent. You could say they defended with 11 players and didn’t leave a lot of room for us to operate in. If you play in such a small area it looks totally different. We were unable to score an early goal and if we had it would have changed the complexion of the match. Last week we had many chances and that’s the biggest difference.”

Dropping two important points and what impact it will have when they play Hapoel Beer Sheva:

“Beer Sheva plays a more offensive game. If they play defensively against us then that’s fine by me. I said it last week that even though we were in fiery place it didn’t mean anything. We had a good run of wins and we can also take this result. It’s part of the game.”

On changing the style of play:

“I’m not happy with the style of game we played today. I think that if we would’ve scored a goal early the match would have been totally different. I brought on Barak Itzhaki and not Eden Ben Basat because the spaces were tighter. If you don’t have many chances then you have to have a bit of luck wth the ones you do have, today however luck wants on our side.”

Head Coach Peter Bosz started Serbian keeper Predrag Rajikovic in goal while Eli Dasa, Carlos Garcia, Eitan Tibi and Yuval Shpungin played just in front of him. Haris Medunjanin and Gal Alberman managed the midfield duties as Tal Ben Chaim, Dor Micha, Orlando Sa and Captain Eran Zahavi provided the attack.

After a quiet opening to the match, the action began to heat up midway through the first half as Dasa attempted to send a deep ball into the box in the 24th minute but was intercepted by the Haifa defense. Just minutes later following a corner kick a Romario Pires 16 meter scorcher went over the bar as the match headed into the 30th minute goalless.

In the 36th minute, Zahavi came in off of the left side and sent a cross into the box to Sa, but the Portuguese striker couldn’t find the back of the goal.  Alberman’s long effort was cleared off of the line by Taleb Tawhatha in the 39th minute, while Gili Vermouth’s 41st minute chance just went shy of Rajikovic’s post as the teams went into the break deadlocked at 0:0.

After Pires, Neta Lavi and Ismael Rian all picked up yellow cards for Haifa in the first half, Rajikovic and Dekel Keinan each were shown yellow as well early on in half number two. In the 56th minute Bosz made his first substitution of the match introducing Avi Rikan for Shpungin and just five minutes later brought on Barak Itzhaki for Sa.

Rajikovic had to be on his toes in the 63rd minute as Glynor Plet’s header from a corner kick was pushed away by the shot stopper to keep the match still knotted up at 0:0. Maccabi’s first chance of the half occurred in the 68th minute when Itzhaki’s 16 meter opportunity found Zahavi close to Greens keeper Ohad Levita but the Captain couldn’t find the handle on the ball.

Dor Micha picked up a yellow card in the 82nd minute as Coach Bosz made his final substitution of the match introducing Shlomi Azulay for Gal Alberman. Just one minute later Medunjanin’s effort was saved by Levita and Itzhaki’s 85th minute opportunity from in close just skirted by the post.

With Maccabi continuing to press, Zahavi’s long range chance in the 89th minute was pulled in by Levita as the match ended in a goalless draw dropping the Yellow-and-Blue back into second place two points from table leaders Hapoel Beer Sheva.