Striker Barak Yitschaki scored for Maccabi Tel Aviv as they lost 1-2 in a pre-season friendly to Hapoel Nir Ramat Hasharon. Maccabi coach Sousa: "A good opportunity to give a run out to players who've had few chances to play so far"
Four days after drawing PAOK Thessaloniki in the Europa League and nine days before the first leg, Maccabi Tel Aviv played a pre-season friendly today against Hapoel Nir Ramat Hasharon. The first half passed almost entirely without incident until five minutes before the break, when Maccabi saw the referee point to the spot in their opponent's favour. Ramat Hasharon's Bosnian striker Emir Hadzic stepped up to the line and fired past Maccabi keeper Tomer Chencinski to put his side ahead. In the second half both coaches made changes to their sides and one of Ramat Hasharon's substitutes, midfielder Fadi Zidan, scored his team's second goal. Near the end of the match Maccabi striker Barak Yitzchaki scored from an aerial kick to close the gap but the final result still showed in Ramat Hasharon's favour. At the end of the match, Maccabi head coach Paulo Sousa said: "The match was a good opportunity to give a run out to players who've had few chances to play so far and to assess their abilities at this stage of the season".
In this encounter with Ramat Hasharon the Maccabi squad faced two players who last season wore Maccabi kit – defender Avi Strul, who was in the starting eleven, and midfielder Ben Ben Yair, who opened on the bench. Missing from the Maccabi squad were players capped for the various Israeli national teams. Four of them (midfielders Gal Alberman and Maharan Radi and defenders Sheran Yeini and Eitan Tibi) are in the Ukraine with the senior squad to play a friendly against their Ukrainian counterparts. Two others, keeper Barak Levi and midfielder Dor Micha, are expected to start in Israel's under-21 friendly against Belgium later this evening. Striker Tal Ben Haim appeared in the first half while his counterpart Rade Prica, who skipped training yesterday due to a light injury, came off the bench in the second half. Eran Zahavi, who yesterday was still receiving treatment, held it to warm-ups on the touchline. Another player who came on in the second half was two year Maccabi defender Omer Vered, who joined team practice yesterday and is expected to continue training in the coming weeks.
The Maccabi squad will return to training on Thursday and continue their preparations in the run up to the first leg of their Europa League tie against Greek side PAOK Thessaloniki next Thursday the 22nd of August, to be broadcast live from 9.15 P.M. on the Israeli Charlton sports channel.
