Mark it down in your diary: Monday July 18th between 17:00-19:00, striker Tal Ben Chaim and midfielder Dor Peretz will be at the Official Team Store at Cinema City Rishon Le’Zion just to meet you. After all of the love you’ve poured on them, the two decided to come and hang out with you the fans for a couple of hours to take pictures and sign autographs.

So what are you waiting for?! Take out your diaries and mark it down:

Monday July 18th between 17:00-19:00, Cinema City Rishon Le’Zion

The Yellow-and-Blue will visit Doha Stadium and face Bnei Sakhnin Monday at 20:30 on Matchday Fourteen to open up the second round of WINNER League matches. The next 13 fixtures will be the reverse games from the previous round as Maccabi defeated Bnei Sakhnin on Matchday One, 3:2 at Bloomfield Stadium. Head Coach Slavisa Jokanovic addressed the media prior to the club’s training session in preparation for the tough away tilt:

“The objective for Maccabi Tel Aviv is to always win the domestic league. We have a chance to win two titles going forward. Our obligation is to push forward and continue to play. Yesterday, very few teams scored goal, four teams games ended in a goalless draw, I’m sure we will attack and try to open up the game early. We need to play with passion.”

The level of play in the Israeli league:

“There is not a big difference between the Israeli clubs. Many teams try to surprise us with a counter attack and that is the style of the teams in this league. We have to try to find a balance between our attack and to try and not be surprised with a counter attack.”

Wrapping up the Champions League:

“I don’t know how Maccabi played the last two seasons in the Champions League. We tried to give our best performance. This is what we could do at the moment and this was the best at this time. I’m sure in the future we will be more competitive in this tournament.”

Improving in the Champions League:

“I need five foreign players that can make a difference on the pitch. That would be helpful to compete. The Israeli players are able to play in this tournament. We are fighting to play at this level and we have to improve ourselves. I expect we will do better going forward. What is our ambition? Do we want to improve or are we happy with the past two months. I’m sure that we want to improve.”

 Maccabi Tel Aviv midfielder Dor Micha is preparing for Monday night’s match at Bnei Sakhnin, 20:30 to begin the second round of WINNER League games. With the Champions League campaign coming to an end, Micha had an opportunity to feature for the club against Dynamo Kiev in the Ukraine and now has a chance to continue to feature:

“I was very happy to have a chance to play in Kiev and I’m happy to be able to speak to you today. The coach and I had a chance to talk together over the past few weeks. The conservations were not extra special but he told me what his expectations were for me and how I could continue to improve going forward.”

Why was he out of the squad for a couple of weeks:

“He felt that some players should have been in the squad in front of me. There’s nothing personal that the coach has against me. I’m happy he let me play last match and I’ll keep working hard to earn my place. There were some times when I was not as good and others where I was. As long as I keep training hard and play the way the coach wants me to play I’ll continue to be a factor for the team.”

Had he thought of leaving:

“I haven’t thought at all about leaving and Maccabi is my home. That is not even a thought. I know where I am and what kind of high level club I am playing with.”

On the Champions League:

“We believed that we could play well every match and we tried to give our maximum, but it just wasn’t enough at this level. We gave 100% every match and even though 11 years ago Maccabi picked up four points you can’t compare the two campaigns whatsoever.”

Championship rivals Hapoel Beer Sheva:

“Beer Sheva is a very strong team and they also improved this year. We have to play better football as well in order to make sure we finish in first place.”

Playing Bnei Sakhnin tomorrow:

“Of course we would like to score an early goal in league matches and that will help open up the games for us. That way we won’t have to go deep into the match to try and find a winner.”

After finishing their Champions League campaign, Maccabi Tel Aviv returns to the domestic league and will face Bnei Sakhnin this coming Monday evening, December 14th at Doha Stadium, 20:30. Tickets can be purchased through the Leaan Ticket Agency office, website or by calling *8780. Ticket sales are for Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters only.

To purchase tickets through the Leaan Ticket Agency CLICK HERE

Ticket Price via telephone *8780/Internet: 60₪

Ticket Price at the Leaan Ticket Office, 101 Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv: 55₪

Ticket Price on Matchday at the Stadium: 50₪ (should tickets remain)

Ticket collection

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

Maccabi Tel Aviv bid adieu to the Champions League Grouo Stages after falling to Dynamo Kiev 1:0 at the Olimpiyskiy Stadium. Slavisa Jokanovic summed up the loss and the club’s campaign 11-years after the team’s first foray into the tournament:

“We conceded a lucky goal early on in this match and we weren’t in the right position. My team followed the game plan and we avoided many problems in front of our box as we changed the structure that we had usually played in the Champions League. Thai way we didn’t suffer too much inside of our box. We didn’t have enough offensive opportunities and we had problems in transition. We also had problems in the possession of the ball and we had some half chances but we just didn’t do enough to take some points today.”

The campaign was a good experience for both the coach and the players:

“It’s true after many years Maccabi Tel Aviv is back in this very strong and very tough competition. I believe that we all wanted to gain experience over this period in the Champions League. It’s a big step and big change that’s very difficult to make in just two months. If Maccabi Tel Aviv will play in the Champions League over the next five years and then perhaps make it into the Europa League they will become much more competitive and then possibly make it into the Round of 16.”

Progression and improvement over the Champions League matches:

“Every game is a different story in itself. Today we played more carefully in the defensive line and we stopped Kiev’s offensive midfielders and wingers. We didn’t find a proper balance within the game and didn’t have great chances to score a goal but at the end we were competitive into the last seconds of the game and we surprised them as they weren’t sure if they should attack or defend. We lost many games very early and today was a similar case when the opposition scored after our mistakes. But we still had a chance to take a point right until the end of the game.”

Coaching a club in the Champions League for the first time:

“I tried to improve myself every game and it was a great experience for me too. I expect that in the future I will be able to compete even stronger and I expect that we will score more goals and win more points. We will be more competitive from the first game and we will try begin this European adventure in the spring and summer once again.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv midfielder Gal Alberman was an integral part of the club throughout Champions League qualifying and in the group stages proper. After wrapping up Matchday Six against Dynamo Kiev in the Ukraine, the wily veteran summed up the competition, analyzed the type of football that was played during the past few months, places where the team can improve and heading back to Israeli league play:

Summarizing the tournament:

“It definitely was a learning experience. It was very hard to get to this point and to advance to the group stages, but we will take what we gained from this into our future European campaigns regardless if we get to the Champions League again.”

Expectations prior to the tournament starting:

“I am not quite sure. We took it match by match each one by itself. We looked at the group after the draw and tried to see where we could take points and where we could score some goals. We’re disappointed that we couldn’t get better results.”

The football played in the Champions League:

“There’s no question that we tried to do the maximum that we could. There were certain periods of time in various games where we were able to play attractive football and there were also minutes where we were unable to stand up to our opponents and we paid a heavy price for that. We tried to play quality football and play the best we could against the other clubs. I’m proud of my teammates, the club and all of the people around Maccabi and even though we had disappointing results we made a huge leap and we were able to represent the fans and the club as best as we could.”

Where can improvements be made:

“It’s hard to talk about this in general. We need to look at each match separately and analyze what we did. I think we all saw that we gave up some easy goals and we weren’t able to take advantage of situations that we had where we could have scored. That was the difference. We couldn’t convert good minutes and opportunities into goals and we gave up too many easy ones. Those are the areas in which we have to improve upon.”

The European experience:

“In each and every match you see the fans who accompanied us and even today we had some with us. It’s when you see them that you know you’re on center stage. Even though we didn’t pick up any points it was still an experience that will never be forgotten.”

Focusing on the Israeli League:

“Along the way we tried not to take our foot off the gas in league matches. I won’t lie, it wasn’t easy to transition between Europe and Israel. But we are in a good place right now in first on goal differential but nonetheless it’s first place. We will try to keep going in the right direction.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv’s young Serbian keeper played in the UEFA Champions League for the first time. Predrag Rajkovic played in all of the club’s European matches, picked up a ton of experience and also turned towards the Israeli league games that begun anew this coming Monday night:

Summarizing the European campaign:

“It was something new for me at a very high level and I gained experience for the next time. I learnt so much as the matches are at a very difficult level of play and we have to keep working hard to be able to compete. In every match I learnt something new but especially in the first game against Chelsea which was the first for everybody. We will be able to do more in the future.”

Turning towards the Israeli league:

“We can now focus on the Israeli league  as we have to win this competition. I feel great at Maccabi and my teammates have been very good to me. I’ve gotten to know Tel Aviv and the club and everyone else on the team which makes playing much easier.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv’s central defender, Eitan Tibi, looked back at the Champions League experience as a whole and looked ahead to the domestic Israeli League:

“I agree with what the coach had to say that we gained a tremendous amount of experience going into the future. It’s a bit disappointing to end off a campaign the way we did without winning or drawing a match. But we learnt a lot and Maccabi should look forward to making it into this tournament once again next year.”

Concerning the Kiev match:

“We had a good defensive team game but at the end of the day we gave up a goal on a set piece and that’s also part of the game.”

Playing for the first time in the Champions League:

“I learnt that you have to be organized and aware for the full 90 minutes. Every single play and every single action has to be accounted for on the pitch. You’ll pay the price for every mistake that’s made very quickly. The pace of the game itself is much faster and personally I felt that I improved as did the other players. I’m sure that this will help us as well in the Israeli League”

Maccabi is in first place in the domestic league:

“We know that our bread and butter is the league and making it into the Champions League was our prize for winning the league. We wanted to do better here but we have to now set our sights on the domestic league as we have plenty of tough games and challenges ahead of us.”

Following the 1:0 loss to Dynamo Kiev on Matchday Six of the UEFA Champions League Group Stages, Head Coach Slavisa Jokanovic spoke about the match, the goal his side gave up and looked at how his team performed overall in the tournament:

“I was happy that the team followed the plan that we had set out prior to the match and our defense was able to stop Kiev’s offensive players. But we didn’t control the ball very well and we didn’t have many chances, we showed organization on the pitch but we didn’t show quality in this tournament.”

The game of football:

“Football is a game played around balance and with many things put together. We made a mistake tonight and we paid a very heavy price on the goal that cost us the match.”

Issues throughout the campaign on set pieces:

 “We made a mistakes on free kicks and corner kicks and this complicates things. When we didn’t put ourselves in the right places on the pitch the other teams punished us for that.”