Spanish defender Carlos Garcia is already busy preparing himself for Maccabi Tel Aviv's crucial Europa League group stage tie on Thursday at APOEL Nicosia: "We're strong enough to compete on both fronts"
This Thursday evening Maccabi Tel Aviv will put to one side their league duties and focus their attention on their fifth match in group F of the Europa League. The squad will take off tomorrow morning for Nicosia in Cyprus in the knowledge that a win against local champions APOEL will guarantee them an historic place among the final 32 clubs in the competition. "If we win on Thursday we'll be able to advance to the knock-out stage with one match still to play in our group", said Maccabi's Spanish defender Carlos Garcia ahead of the crucial encounter. "This would be a major step forward for us as a team and for Israeli football as a whole. We know how important this match is, we're completely focused on the game and we'll be giving it everything we have".
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Garcia was asked about the team's ability to manage in both league and European competitions, especially if they find themselves in the first knock-out round of the Europa League: "Absolutely, at the end of the day a knock-out round is just two matches, and if we succeed in advancing to the last 16, well, that's just two more. The hardest part of the competition is the group stage where you've got six matches to play, and so far I think we've managed to cope quite well with the combined duties of league and Europe. And I think we're strong enough to carry on coping but we'll just have to see. Personally, I have every faith in the team".
Maccabi Tel Aviv captain Sheran Yeini also addressed himself to the intriguing tie coming up on Thursday night and talked a bit about the team's preparation for the decisive encounter: "We're still getting ready for APOEL, reacquainting ourselves with them. They've replaced their head coach and drew their last match so we're still having a good look at them. I can't really say much one way or the other right now, it looks like they'll just be getting into it right ahead of the match after we head out for Cyprus and then we'll get ourselves into full play mode". The squad are expected to land in Nicosia tomorrow afternoon and proceed immediately to their hotel next to APOEL's GSP Stadium where the match will be played. Tomorrow evening they'll take their final practice at the stadium and hold a traditional pre-match press conference.
