Maccabi Tel Aviv’s young striker Dejan Radonjic started his second straight match for the club and helped his side pick up the 2:0 win against Hapoel Raanana in WINNER League action on Matchday 17. The Croatian talked about his coming back from injury, his offensive qualities and what led to the victory over Raanana:
“It was a very difficult game but the good news is that we took 3-points. They were very aggressive and ran a lot. It’s in these types of games where the teams that play Maccabi Tel Aviv give 150%. We played together as a team and these are games that you can only win as a team when no one really stood out for the good or for the not so good. Teamwork defined this win.”
About his second game after coming back from injury:
“I’m not really disappointed considering that this was my second game coming back from injury. I ran a lot which helped me work on my conditioning. The first objective is to always win as a team, the second is for me to continue to run a lot and work on my conditioning and third is to score goals and hand out assists. I’m not so disappointed as I tried to continue to work through the match and had a chance. I worked on the defensive side of things as well and on the first goal, Avi Rikan and I pressed on the right side to help get the 1:0 lead.”
Helping out on the offensive side:
“I’m pretty fast and can run to the open spaces but I can play with my back to the goal and it will be with that quality that I’ll be able to help the team and make things a bit easier. This will especially help out Eran Zahavi and it would be great if he could score 80 goals and be better than Messi or Neymar!”
On wanting to score:
“Of course I want to score a goal and that’s also my role as a striker. I was always the best striker on my team and also in the league that I played in. Last year in Croatia I was the second best striker and it’s not that I necessarily want to score more goals than Zahavi but I want to score as soon as possible to help my team and improve my confidence.”
