Preview
Maccabi returned to the Haladas stadium in Szombathely where they saw off FK Panevezys last week for the first leg of the Europa League Playoff against TSC Backa Topola.
With a place in the group stage at stake and against his former club where he spent the past two years, Maccabi’s Head Coach, Zarko Lazetic, who on Sunday guided Maccabi to the Toto Cup Final as well, made some changes to his starting line-up.
Tyrese Asate who served a one match touchline ban in the last match, completed his suspension and return to partner Raz Shlomo at the heart of defense. Sagiv Jehezkel on the right and Ofir Davidzada on the left completed the back-four in front of goalkeeper Roy Mishpati.
Issouf Sissokho who impressed against Bnei Sakhnin on Sunday kept his place in the anchorman role at the expense of Joris van Overeem while Gabi Kanichowsky and Dor Peretz completed Maccabi’s midfield trio. Osher Davida who scored his debut goal of the campaign against Sakhnin was named by Lazetic on one wing with Hisham Layous on the opposite flank. Dor Turgeman led Maccabi’s frontline as the young striker will aim to put behind him the late penalty miss at Bloomfield.
On the bench Lazetic named goalkeeper Ofek Melika, Avishay Cohen, Roy Revivo, Idan Nachmias, Eran Zahavi, Dan Biton, Joris van Overeem, Elad Madmon, Henry Addo, Matan Baltaxa, Ido Shahar and Nor Bitton.
First Half
Maccabi began the match on the front foot dominating the early stages right from the start as an Osher Davida cross from the left in the third minute caused TSC’s defense all sorts of problems before the danger was cleared. Three minutes later Dor Peretz and Gabi Kanichowsky exchanged passes on the edge of the box before Maccabi’s captain on the night pulled the trigger but Veljko Ilic was well positioned to catch the ball. Maccabi continued to press as Dor Turgeman rose high to meet Sagiv Jehezkel’s cross but guided his header wide in the 11th minute.
Supported by a wall of noise created by 60 traveling Serbian fans who made the 6 hour long bus trip from Backa Topola, TSC slowly got themselves in the game. In the 23rd minute Kanichowsky and Peretz combined once again as the diminutive midfielder whipped in a cross which was met by a volley that wasn’t powerful enough to beat the keeper. Four minutes later Maccabi’s pressure on TSC paid off and the deadlock was finally broken. Hisham Layous tormented the TSC defenders down the left before squaring for Kanichoesky whose initial shot was blocked and fell to Peretz who was also denied by a defender. Turgeman latched on the loose ball and rifled in the rebound to put Maccabi in front with his second goal of the campaign.
In the 40th minute Maccabi charged forward for a counter attack through Sagiv Jehezkel before Peretz released Turgeman through. But the young forward was brought down by Mateja Đorđević as Austrian referee Sebastian Gishamer needed the intervention of VAR to send off the Serbian defender.TSC were reduced to 10 men but as the fourth official signaled two minutes of added time, Mihajlo Banjac flung himself and threatened to slice Issouf Sissokho into two. Gishamer booked the defender but was called to the screen and changed his initial decision to a red card leaving TSC with 9 players for the remainder of the game.
Second Half
With a two man numerical disadvantage TSC slowed the game in the second half as Maccabi tried to find an opening and increase their lead. Sissokho went into the referee’s book for a professional foul on Aleksa Pejic. Right on the hour mark Zarko Lazetic made a triple change as he replaced Ofir Davidzada with Roy Revivo at left back. Dan Biton replaced Layous and Osher Davida was replaced by Eran Zahavi.
With Zahavi lining up alongside Turgeman upfront the impact was almost instant as Maccabi doubled their lead three minutes later. Biton floated a cross which was headed by Turgeman across the face of goal before Peretz sent his header that Ilic couldn’t keep out as it went in off crossbar to make it 2-0.
Roy Mishpati who was hardly challenged until that stage came to the rescue almost right after the restart as he charged off his line to block Sasa Jovanovic. Lazetic made his fourth substitution on 74 as he introduced Elad Madmon for Sissokho allowing the 20-year-old forward make his European debut for Maccabi.
Eight minutes later Biton played a key role in Maccabi’s third as he floated a pinpoint diagonal cross allowing Madmon tp flick home from close range and celebrate his debut Maccabi goal. Turgeman bowed out to a round of applauds by the small number of Maccabi fans present as he was replaced by Ido Shahar for the final six minutes of regular time.
