Tag: winner league

Zahavi: “We know where we need to improve”

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Maccabi Tel Aviv will take on Maccabi Haifa on Matchday Five of Ligat Winner this Saturday night at Sammy Ofer Stadium. Following the loss to Raanana,  Captain Eran Zahavi spoke about the upcoming match against The Greens, the start of the season and more:

AQ7A8672On the beginning of the season:

“We opened up the season in good shape. We made it up to the Champions League and there are things to fix up in all the competitions. But to categorize Chelsea and the Toto Cup together is just not right. We don’t like to lose but the results so far go have been in our favor. But again, we will keep working to improve and go forward.”

About the upcoming match:

“They are a good team even though they’ve had trouble at the beginning of the year. Haifa will be playing at home in a full stadium and they are coming into the match hungry after the last game. We were disappointed losing to Raanana as we come to every game to win. We will work on the points that we need to especially in the box. We may have needed more players in the box and we know where we need to improve.”

The system Zahavi feels most comfortable in:

“I’m comfortable with any style of play. Even with a 4-3-3 we need more players in the box in order to score goals, we know what we need to do and we’ll keep working on it in the upcoming matches. It would be great if other players would score, Barak and Gal scored the past few matches and we didn’t win those games.”

“We must concentrate more and bring more energy”

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Maccabi Tel Aviv will face Maccabi Haifa away at Sammy Ofer Stadium in Haifa on Matchday Five, Saturday night 20:05 as Head Coach Slavisa Jokanovic looks to get his side back on the winning track. Jokanovic: “We must concentrate more and bring more energy”

What do expect from Maccabi Haifa after seeing them play against Beer Sheva this week:

AQ7A8673 “They are an organized team and they tried their best in Beer Sheva under difficult circumstances going a man down at the start of the match. For us we must find the points in the game where we can change the situation and it’s a chance to play good football and get back on the right foot. As coach it’s my responsibility to make sure that we are ready and try to focus the team on the next game and in this case it’s Maccabi Haifa which is one of the classic matches in Israel football. This match may be a turning point to regain our confidence. It’s a very important game for me.”

 What went wrong last match against Raanana:

 “We have to remember that before the game begins nothing is over and done. We arrived thinking it may be an easy game and in the end we lost. We didn’t attack with enough players and they had a couple of chances and they scored. We played the two halves with different systems and tried to change things up and each system had their strengths and weaknesses. In the Israeli league we must have spend more time attacking in the box and last match we played outside of it.”

How do you see the club at this point of the year:

ראיקוביץ' “We must concentrate more and bring more energy and as always the next game for us is the most important. We must be ready for all of the competitions. Each game is a different story and right now we’ve played 6-7 more matches than other teams. We are still at the beginning of the season and we must to continue to improve and be hungry for each and every game and in every competition. In each competition the side may be different team but everyone in the squad must understand that this is Maccabi and we are always under pressure to win the match, especially in the Israeli league. Right now, two wins, one draw and a loss is not good enough and it’s not what the supporters want to see from us.”

On his candidness after the Raanana match:

“I spoke with my players after the Raanana game and I say what I think to them and to the media and I try to be honest. I have my reasons when I speak about the team and I never point out individual players but as a collective, as a team.”

What is the status of Nosa Igiebor:

“Nosa Igiebor has a knee problem and had an issue the past few games and he’s not 100%. We are checking him out and we are trying to find a solution to his injury and he is doing this outside of Tel Aviv. Shlomi Azulay is also unavailable for the match.”

Vermouth: “We just weren’t good enough”

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Maccabi Tel Aviv midfielder Gili Vermouth played 90 minutes in his club’s 2:1 loss to Hapoel Raanana. The veteran midfielder discussed what went wrong in the match, his playing time this year and playing consistently for the club:

What happened this evening against Raanana:

untitled-19“I think that we just didn’t play well enough, as Raanana had two chances and scored two goals. We didn’t take advantage of our opportunities and could have played better closer to the goal. We just weren’t good enough.

If we would have scored first, the game would have played out differently and it would have been a bit easier. But because they scored first we had to chase after them. We watched them on video and prepared properly and paid extra attention to their set pieces.”

On his playing time this season:

“I would like to play more and start all of the matches. In the game against Beer Sheva and Kiryat Shemona I played, but I didn’t against Chelsea and it’s not pleasant, but that’s the story right now.”

 Not playing consistently can have an impact:

“There’s no question that I could play better and I made some good passes but they didn’t make it through to the intended target. I always come to play each and every game and I know that I can contribute both in Europe and in Israel. Anyone that doesn’t play consistently is not in an ideal situation but I’m happy that I played a full match today. When I played against Viktoria Plzen I was able to change both of the games and then I didn’t play against Basel and Chelsea, but this is what it is right now.”

Dasa: “I’ve got to tip my hat to all of the fans”

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After falling to Hapoel Raanana 2:1 at Bloomfield Stadium, Maccabi Tel Aviv’s right back Eli Dasa discussed the match that was, looked forward to the coming week and also gave credit to the wonderful Maccabi supporters:

ורמוט ודסה בתגובות מהמשחק מול הפועל רעננה

How do you look back at this match:

“It’s a big disappointment. We didn’t expect this to happen especially at home. These were points for the taking after the Champions League match, but we won’t dwell on the loss for too long. It’s a long season and everything will be ok.”

You played 90 minutes and saw that Maccabi controlled the match:

“Most of the matches at Bloomfield are played in our favor but Raanana closed us down very well. They worked very hard and they deserve the credit for the win.”

There are two big games coming up:

“We come to win every game, but it will be a tough game away at Sammy Ofer against Maccabi Haifa who are off to a poor start. We can’t look back at this loss as we have to go forward and prepare for the Haifa match and then the Champions League game.”

Nevertheless the loss tonight was still a tough pill to swallow:

“We are professionals and have won the championship the past few years, so for sure we are taking this loss hard. We take every point that we can get seriously as these will count later on in the year in April and May. Tomorrow we have to lift our heads and continue on.”

Were you still thinking about Chelsea:

“No, not at all, that definitely wasn’t the problem. We made the switch and you can’t say that the players didn’t want to win. They gave it their all. Sometimes there are games like this where it just doesn’t go your way. If we had scored first the result could have been totally different but there are also games like what we had against Raanana.”

The over 10,000 fans that came out today kept cheering well after the match was over:

“No question, I want to give back to the supporters. They are great. Even when I was with Beitar and I saw what the fans were like against Hibernians of Malta, they have been terrific all year long and we want to make them happy. I’ve got to tip my hat to all of the fans for cheering us on when we win and when we lose.”

Know your opponent: Hapoel Raanana

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Haim Silvas’s club made a number of changes this past summer saying goodbye to Tony Nwakaeme and ‘keeper Daniel Lifshitz who came over to Maccabi and welcomed former Yellow-and-Blue striker Barak Badash.

Year Founded: 1972

Stadium: Netanya

Head Coach: Haim Silvas

פרומו: לקראת המפגש מול הפועל רעננה

Players who left: Tony Nwakaeme, Shoval Gozlan, Moshe Abutbol, Yoav Gerafi, Yogev Lehrman, Yakir Shina, Gil Blumenstein, Della Yampolski, Ze’ev Haimovitz, Elis Bakaj, Daniel Lifshitz.

Players who arrived: Yuval Shabtai, Ido Levy, Barak Badash, Ahmed Shacban.

Key Player: Evans Kangwa

_IR_4983The striker, who was third choice behind Mamadou Thiam and Tony Nwakaeme in Haim Silvas’s lineup now takes center stage and has answered the call with two goals in as many games. His counterattack speed is lethal and may cause problems for Slavisa Jokanovic’s defenders.

 Past Encounters:

Maccabi Tel Aviv has played Hapoel Raanana a number of times over the years but their first league matches took place just two years ago when Asher Alon’s team was promoted to Ligat Winner. The Yellow-and-Blue have held the upper hand in the matches between the two sides as one their more memorable wins was a 2:0 victory in Maccabi’s first home match of last season.

“We’ll forget about Chelsea and come prepared for Raanana”

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After his “Baptism by fire” against Chelsea in a 4:0 loss on Matchday One of the UEFA Champions League Group Stages, left back Omri Ben Harush will attempt to help the Yellow-and-Blue get back to their winning ways in the Ligat Winner as Maccabi hosts Hapoel Raanana on Matchday Four.

AQ7A8104“The transition between one competition to the other is very stark,” explained Ben Harush prior to this evening’s match. “It’s not easy to go from a match in one of the world’s top tournaments to our league. But as they say we must make the switch and come prepared for out game against Raanana. We always have to come back to the regular league so we’re used to it and we have to remember that’s how we got to where we are today.”

The impact of the Chelsea loss:

“I don’t think that the loss to Chelsea will have any impact on our play. We need to take it one match at a time and the coaching staff and players are doing what they need to forget about Chelsea and come prepared for Raanana.”

 About their opponent Raanana:

“Raanana is a good team and it won’t be an easy game. They play well on the pitch and you can see exactly that in their last game against Beer Sheva even though they loss. AQ7A8029We have to be ready on a professional level so we can control the pace as needed.”

On changing the style played on Wednesday to this match:

“In league play we are more in control and have possession of the ball for longer periods of time so we will have more chances, but we have to make sure that we change up the way we played Wednesday so we will be prepared. These matches will be very different in style and it’s part of our training to be ready for this both mentally and on a professional level. This is a test for any Israeli club that will play in a European competition.”

Tickets on sale for Hapoel Raanana match

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After just arriving home from London, Maccabi will host the Ligat Winner Matchday Four against the Raanana club from just up the road.

Tickets may be purchased on the Leaan website, by telephone *8780 or at the Leaan Ticket Office, 101 Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv.

Ticket Prices via telephone/Internet:

Sections 7/8:

Adult – 105₪

Women/Soldiers/Youth – 55₪ (Youth not available via the website)

Sections 4:

All tickets – 60₪

Sections 2/13:

All tickets – 115₪

Ticket Prices at the Leaan Ticket Office:

Sections 7/8:

Adult – 100₪

Women/Soldiers/Youth – 50₪ (Youth not available via the website)

Sections 4:

All tickets – 55₪

Sections 2/13:

All tickets – 110₪

Print at home

When ordering the tickets make sure that your email address is correct.

After completing your order, a link will be sent via email. Please be patient this may take a few minutes.

If 10 minutes have passed and you have not received the email, please check your Spam folder.

Please make sure that you print the PDF of the tickets on A4 size paper – one ticket per page.

Entrance to the stadium with the “Print at Home” ticket is one time use only, meaning should you print the ticket more than once only the first entrance will be valid.

Ticket collection

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

Peretz: “We’re getting ready for the next challenge”

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Maccabi Tel Aviv arrived back in Israel last night (Thursday) from England after their first match in the group stages of the Champions League where they came up short against Chelsea, the Premier League Champion. Even though the club landed just last night this morning they are back to work preparing for the Ligat Winner Matchday Four matchup against Hapoel Raanana at Bloomfield Stadium. Dor Peretz who played in last night’s game coming in as a second half substitute, talked about the experience of playing at Stamford Bridge, his relationship with Coach Jokanovic and the transition between playing in Europe and Israel.

“As of today this was the greatest experience for me as a footballer. It’s an amazing feeling to be able to play at such an terrific stadium against such a big club. I was really excited and happy. Putting the result aside it was a great learning experience. There’s something special in the air at Stamford Bridge that creates an incredible atmosphere.”

On his new role on the pitch against Chelsea and his relationship with the coach:

“I’m not so familiar with being a right back but I did the best that I could. I see this is as a vote of confidence from the coach and I’m very happy about it. I have the same relationship like all of the other players with the coach but I’m really excited that he has faith in me and I feel very appreciated.”

On transitioning from Europe back to the domestic league:

“We have a lot of respect for Chelsea but the match is over and we have to move on. Today we are already training and preparing for the match on Sunday against Hapoel Raanana. That was also the case after the last match we played, we’re happy when it’s over and enjoy the moment but the following day you’re already thinking about the next game and we’re getting ready for the next challenge. It’s important for us to begin a new winning streak.”