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Maccabi team captain Sheran Yeini described his teammates' disappointment after losing their Cup tie in Ashdod: "We're very keen to take as many titles as we can and the State Cup is certainly one of them"

Disappointment ran high at the end of 120 minutes of intense play in Ashdod that saw Maccabi Tel Aviv make an early exit from the coveted State Cup competition. Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach Paulo Sousa made no secret of his own personal disappointment: "A Cup tie is as important as any other match and anyway, the mentality at Maccabi is to win every match. I'm disappointed for my players and for our fans, who were brilliant, as always. I believe they can be very proud of our players, who ran hard and chased the ball and created chances throughout the entire match. This simply wasn't our day. We created more chances, the players gave it their all but nothing seemed to help".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnEhaVT_6tI&list=UU-oWQqnf8B8a_TsmVi0mTUg&feature=c4-overview

When asked about his starting eleven for the match, he replied: "We didn't lose because of the players chosen to start the match, because they dominated on the pitch and created chances. If that hadn't been the case then perhaps you could say it was because of the side. In the first half we worked at preventing our opponents from playing their customary game, while at the same time targeting our players who could exploit the spaces behind the Ashdod defensive line. When you have so little time to get ready it's hard to introduce new elements into your game but that being said we kept to our approach with a few changes we made at the break. After that we dominated and were very sharp in the pressure we put them under, we won the ball back quickly and created a lot of chances that could have won us the match".

Maccabi team captain Sheran Yeini also addressed the issue of the team's starting line-up: "Every Maccabi player is good enough to be in the starting eleven and we've already proved that in the course of the season". Yeini also described the mood of the team at the end of the match: "We feel bad after losing any match and of course we're very keen to take as many titles as we can and the State Cup is certainly one of them. The present Maccabi squad have never won the Cup and that's a pity, but we'll simply have to wait for next year".

Also for the scorer of Maccabi's (temporary) equaliser, midfielder Eran Zahavi, losing the Cup tie was difficult to swallow: "It's not easy and I don't think we deserved to lose, we were much better on the night but the balls just didn't go into the net. I in particular missed a chance I should have converted, after their second penalty, and that happens too sometimes and that's the charm of the Cup, we lost undeservedly and now we just have to look ahead. We have many other goals to achieve, so far we're having a very good season and I hope it will carry on that way. On Sunday we have an important league match against Bnei Sakhnin and that's our main objective".