Eran Zahavi returned to score as he successfully converted an 83rd minute penalty to help Maccabi to a 4-0 victory over Beitar Jerusalem at Bloomfield. Zahavi, who scored his first ever league goal in Yellow and Blue against Beitar Jerusalem in 2013, took his tally to 100 league goals at the club.
At the end of the match, the 35-yeare-old marksman summed up the match and paid tribute to Oscar Gloukh who scored a goal and added an assist. “Oscar is an amazing player, he is a talent of the highest pedigree as he does everything like a seasoned professional. We want him to develop and will be extremely happy for him. The aim is for him to an important factor – I haven’t seen too many players of his age play at this level and with such quality. He constantly asks for the ball and constantly makes threats on goal”.
Having missed a penalty against Ashdod last week, Zahavi didn’t think twice before taking the penalty against Beitar: “I never hide from responsibility. Sometimes you score and sometimes you don’t – I will happily keep on taking responsibility and step up to take penalties. I am just delighted it went in as missing week after week is too much for me”.
On his start to the season, Zahavi said: “I suffered from an injury which wasn’t that simple and takes time to recover from. To readjust to Israeli football takes time. People might dismiss it but there is also readjusting to the country and the country. Luckily, I have a an amazing club which supports me and gives me all the necessary tools to succeed. I believe that I will soon be back to full fitness and everything will be ok. I have high expectations from myself and these expectations are no different from when I scored 35 league goals in one season”.
