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Maccabi Tel Aviv have finished their final preparations for tomorrow night's Europa League round of 32 second leg at FC Basel.

Maccabi Tel Aviv held a final pre-match practice at St. Jakob-Park where tomorrow at 8pm their second leg against FC Basel in the Europa League's round of 32 will be held.  Head coach Paulo Sousa attended a customary pre-match press conference this evening and first addressed himself to Maccabi's chances of qualifying for the last 16: "They're the same chances we had at the beginning of the first game. We know it's a qualification in two games. It was a surprise for me, an experienced club and a team like Basel to come to Bloomfield and to defend but that's the way they're looking for qualification and we need to respect that. We must also give a lot of recognition for all the work the Maccabi lads are doing, to play and perform and get the respect of opponents like Basel. And again, we're coming here with the same ambitions, the same way we started our season, with ambition, courage, positive football, looking for results, and we also want to get a good result tomorrow. We recognise that Basel were always the favourites, with all the history and background they have as a club. From what I read, tomorrow will be their 200th game in Europe, it's an amazing achievement, it means you need to be completely consistent in this process, and it's something we are working on as a club, to create this culture, but the process with Maccabi started only one year ago. For all that I have confidence in everything we have done so far as a club, as a team, as players, to get out on the pitch tomorrow with the same ambition, with the same courage, to put on a good display of football and fight for qualification".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO1OKQ-0UVs&feature=c4-overview&list=UU-oWQqnf8B8a_TsmVi0mTUg

Sousa was asked whether the team were working on taking better advantage of their opportunities, many of which have been missed in recent games: "It actually means we are doing really well because we are always playing against different opponents and we're always creating opportunities. Hopefully tomorrow we'll be creating those opportunities too because normally against teams with quality and experience at this level we don't have too many opportunities and we saw that against Basel at Bloomfield. Of course at Bloomfield they created more difficulties because they brought their defences a little bit more down the pitch, with more players behind the ball and that reduces the space to create more chances. I predict that tomorrow we will have more space and our offence can be more involved in the last third of the pitch in creating chances. But again, these chances will not be as frequent as we are accustomed to. Hopefully we will have enough chances to score and get this qualification".

"I think that the process of coaching in football is like life, it's always a process of learning. But we must also always be aware of the realities of the two teams and the two clubs and especially of the respective players. We noticed the experience of a Basel team that succeeded at the beginning of the last game at Bloomfield in managing the pressure and in controlling the rhythms of the game in order to organise the timing of their qualification. We know all these things. We know that at tomorrow's game some of our opponent's important and influential players will return to the squad. But we are also focused on delivering on what we ourselves proposed from the beginning of my journey as coach here at Maccabi, to promote positive football with ambition and courage. I believe in playing with emotion and I believe the main protagonists in football have to have these emotions and they need to show those emotions. Tomorrow we want to show these emotions, within a learning process for us, but hopefully this time in such a way that we can enjoy this qualification match."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsVsB6yJ4sw&feature=youtu.be

Finally, Sousa addressed himself to the absence of one of his key defensive players, Carlos Garcia, whose third yellow card in last week's home leg disqualified him from appearing in tomorrow night's contest: "Of course with Carlos playing in practically all the games it's a normal situation throughout the season, so now we're looking to take the best decisions, we're looking for a magic night where everybody will make the right decisions, individually and collectively, against a tough opponent and give us the opportunity to get an historic qualification for our players and for Israeli football, for our club. This is what we're looking for. The team is always above the individuals. We always need to find solutions so the team can always manage in the absence of certain important players like Carlos".

Team captain Sheran Yeini also attended the press conference and spoke about the preparations for tomorrow night's match and about the entire European campaign: "We're very proud of what we've accomplished so far and what we can promise is that we'll give it our all and fight to the last minute to qualify for the next stage. We know they're going to press us and play attacking football so our concentration in defence has to be on a very high level. Regardless, we'll have the opportunity to surprise them on the counter because we'll have plenty of open space. We're aware of all these things, we've followed closely how they play in games like this and we're ready for it. So far our state of mind is concerned, there's a lot in this match for us. It makes much more sense to save your emotions, your motivation and your preparedness for the right moments and not to waste them. We'll make sure that we'll all be ready for those moments".