Maccabi Tel Aviv played their final Champions League group stage match of the season in the Ukraine against Dynamo Kiev at the Olimpiyskiy Stadium behind closed doors. In a spirited affair, Maccabi gave up an early goal to Denys Garmash in the 16th minute and searched for the equalizer throughout the match but couldn’t find one as they fell to the Ukrainian side 1:0.

For the last match of this season’s European campaign Head Coach Slavisa Jokanovic went with a starting XI that had a few ripples in it from prior games. In front of Serbian keeper Predrag Rajkovic was a defensive quartet of Omri Ben Harush, Eitan Tibi, Carlos Garcia and Eli Dasa. Manning the midfield was veteran Gal Alberman, Nosa Igiebor and Avi Rikan with an offensive trio of Dor Micha, Tal Ben Chaim and captain Eran Zahavi.

After a slow start, Dynamo Kiev began controlling the flow of the game and in the 12th minute Andriy Yarmolenko’s nifty pass to Junior Moraes was smartly saved by Maccabj keeper Rajkovic and pushed out for a corner kick. Four minutes later, the Ukrainians would find their way onto the scoresheet when Denys Garmash pounced on a rebounded save by Rajkovic and slammed the ball high into the goal for a 1:0 lead. Ben Chaim had deflected a Serhiy Rybalka free kick that Rajkovic was somehow able to keep out of the goal but Garmash beat Tibi to the rebound to score.

Just prior to the goal, Yarmelenko had gotten tangled up with Rikan and was substituted out of the match and replaced by Oleg Gusev. The veteran striker Gusev had scored a brace against Maccabi in 2011 Europa League action when the sides fought to a 3:3 draw in Kiev.

After another Rybalka chance Maccabi had their first opportunity of the match in the 27th minute when Rikan sent a ball to Micha in the box but the midfielder missed Oleksandr Shovkovskiy’s goal to keep the score as is. As the match hit the 38th minute Micha found Dasa in the box but couldn’t control his attempt that went wildly over the goal. As Maccabi continued to pick up the pace, Zahavi struck an incredibly accurate free kick just to the left of the goal that Shovkovskiy had to make an alert save to keep his clean sheet intact as the sides headed into halftime.

The second half started with no changes to either lineup as Maccabi looked to find a goal and draw even. In the 48th minute the dangerous Rybalka sent another free kick into the Maccabi box from the left side but Garmash’s header went wide of Rajkovic’s goal. Two minutes later Dor Micha’s long distance shot from 17 meters was saved by Shovkovskiy and in the 62nd minute Zahavi’s effort went over the bar to keep the score 1:0 in favor of the hosts.

Jokanovic made a double substitution in the 72nd minute bringing in Gili Vermouth and Dor Peretz for Micha and Igiebor and then introduced Barak Itzhaki in the 83rd minute in search of the equalizer. However, the tying goal was not to be found as Maccabi Tel Aviv will have to wait for next summer to try their European luck again.

Nadav Yakoubi play-by-play man at Sport 5, accompanied the club throughout their Champions League games from Plzen to Kiev and sums up Maccabi’s European campaign.

On advancing to the exclusive European tournament:

“It was a powerful moment as it was a credit to all of Israeli football and everyone was thrilled for Maccabi especially their fans.”

Being a good luck charm:

“Advancing to the group stages of the Champions League was historic and when I saw Gal Alberman I said to him that I was the good luck charm. He told me that I had to keep announcing the matches throughout the Champions League but the luck may have run out.”

The Champions League experience:

“It was an amazing experience being that it was the first time in many years that an Israeli team made it into the Champions League. To be able to go and play at Stamford Bridge, the Dragao and now in Kiev was fantastic. But what I’ll really take away from the whole Champions League experience is that I’ll never forget the Maccabi fans at Chelsea. We entered the stadium and it was a shock to see the amount of fans in the stands on the left side of the stadium going crazy. The cheering that was going on for the entire match was incredible. Eli Ohana who was working the match with me couldn’t believe it and we didn’t stop talking about it the whole time.”

What happens if Eran Zahavi will score in the 90th minute?

 “I’ll yell at the top of my lungs…EEERRRAAANNNN ZZZAAAHHHHAAVVVIIIII!!!!”

The Yellow-and-Blue scored nine goals in November but only one was chosen by the Maccabi FIRST members as the HP Goal of the Month. One of the voters will win a prize: An HP Multifunction Printer. Captain Eran Zahavi who had two goals in contention won 33% of the vote for his second goal against Bnei Yehuda, a screamer from outside of the box assisted by Shlomi Azulay. Here’s how you voted:

Maccabi Tel Aviv will visit Dynamo Kiev tomorrow at 21:45 on the final Matchday of the Champions League group stages and the match will be the last game of this year’s European campaign. Head Coach Slavisa Jokanovic and captain Eran Zahavi spoke at the press conference earlier today at the Olimpiyskiy Stadium prior to their final training session.

“Tomorrow we will be playing against a tough opponent in Europe’s most important competition and one of the most respected tournaments in the world. We will be coming into the match with a tremendous amount of motivation,” Jokanovic commented.

The match will be played behind closed doors without fans:

“We are here to give the best that we can. Of course when one plays football you would like to give your best in front of a crowd. It’s not going to be helpful for us that there will be no one in the stands and especially here in Kiev. Our goal was to play in front of a packed stadium with over 70,000 fans. I don’t think this will be good for us or to Kiev and for football in general.”

On the expectations he had in the Champions League:

“First of all I think that it was terrific that we were able to get past a club like Basel on the way to the Champions League. Even though we haven’t picked up any points yet, I believe that the experience that was gained will be very important for the next time the club is in the Champions League. Tomorrow’s match is another opportunity to gain experience but we also don’t want to finish the campaign without any points and against Kiev we will have our last chance to do so.”

Why hasn’t Eran Zahavi scored at the same rate he did in the qualifying matches:

“Eran will have a chance to score some more goals tomorrow in the Champions League but overall I’m please with his performance in the whole European campaign.”

Expectations about Dynamo Kiev tomorrow:

“Kiev is an excellent team and they are very difficult to play against as they play many players. My club is ready for this and I don’t believe that Kiev will surprise us with something that we didn’t expect.

The captain Eran Zahavi added:

“We want to do the best we can tomorrow. We didn’t get the results that we expected in our group. I hope that tomorrow we will put on a good show and get a good result.”

The weather factor:

“We played in pretty cold weather this past Saturday in Israel and that was good preparation for us. The weather in Israel is generally different than in Kiev but we won’t use this as an excuse.”

Playing on the Holiday of the Maccabis:

“I think it would be great if we could collect our first points of the Champions League on the Holiday and it would make our fans very happy in Israel and around the world and I hope that we’ll do just that.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv took off this evening for the Ukraine in preparation for their Matchday Six Champions League clash against Dynamo Kiev on Wednesday at 21:45. The Yellow-and-Blue held their final training session this evening before the flight and will land later on tonight. On Tuesday, the club will hold a press conference and final practice and you can get all the updates surrounding the match right here on the official club website and Maccabi social media outlets.

Four years have gone by since Dor Micha played and scored against the Ukrainian outfit and he spoke to the official website just before take off: “It’s exciting, perhaps it was just me, Barak and Yoav that played against them. This is our last game in the Champions League and we want to come home with a good result and some points.”

About the goal he scored against Kiev at home in a 1:1 draw back in 2011:

“I remember the goal I scored against Kiev at home, and I won’t ever forget it for the rest of my life. I hope we’ll be able to have a repeat performance on Wednesday.”

The Champions League learning experience:

“Our group has some clear cut favorites and not just Kiev. These are teams with a lot of experience and even though the results may not have been the greatest we are learning a lot and gaining a tremendous amount from being in the Champions League which is very important in its own right.”

The Holiday of Hanukah:

“They say that the holiday of Hanukah in the holidays of the Maccabis, I hope we’ll be able to give everyone a Happy Holiday.”

The Maccabi “Shachar” Tel Aviv Under-19 club is also headed to Kiev  where they will in search of their first win of their campaign. The last time the two clubs met in Israel  the sides parted ways with a 1:1 draw. Tomer Altman said prior to the flight: “Even though we can’t advance it doesn’t matter. We have nothing to lose and it’s important to us to play well and pick up a victory. We had a positive tournament and we deserve a win due to the whole experience that we’ve been through.”