Maccabi Tel Aviv will head to Hapoel Haifa on Sunday at 20:15 after a 3-week league break from league matches. Last Matchday, the Yellow & Blue defeated Hapoel Raanana 1:0 which also saw Or Dasa score his first goal, but Head Coach Jordi Cruyff wants to see the club play better.

In the video: The last match against Hapoel Haifa at Sammy Ofer Stadium

Despite the loss to Slavia Prague in the Europa League, the club was happy to get back Eyal Golasa who played his first minutes after being out for four months and will hopefully make his first league appearance of the season against the Reds.

Cruyff discussed the upcoming contest: “We need to win. It’s an important game and we have to be strong and get the points. We need the points and we want to finish the first round with 29 points. The team has been playing well under a good coach in Nir Klinger. We have to put our level up and win well, not just win.”

Midfielder Dor Peretz added: “We didn’t expect that Hapoel Haifa would be at the top of the table but anything can happen in football. They are in first place and we are a few spots below them. It will be a good game.”

Importance of the points: “We want the points and we want to play well. I think we saw our game improving and we are on the way up. This game is behind us and we are already looking ahead as we have an important match coming up.”

The current picture:
Hapoel Haifa is one of the surprise stories of the season since their championship back in 1999/2000. Nir Klinger’s side has 7 wins, 2 draws and only 1 loss that came last Matchday at Maccabi Netanya.

The Haifa defense has given up the least goals in the league, with only 8 being scored against them this season with 2 of them coming against Netanya. The Reds starting keeper Ernestas Setkus underwent surgery this past week and will be out recovering for some time as Ran Kadosh will most probably take his place in goal.
Maccabi comes into the contest only 3 points from the top of the table after defeating Hapoel Raanana last Matchday.