Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club awoke this morning with smiles on their faces after their important 3-1 win last night against Hapoel Beer Sheva at Bloomfield Stadium, a win that increased their lead at the top of the Israeli Premier League table to six points.
After the match, head coach Paulo Sousa had this to say: "At the moment we are first. To be champions, we need to be consistent and we need to keep winning. We've already had a six-point advantage but it got narrower. Winning today means we're a team that are doing quite well. Beer Sheva are an important opponent, maturing, playing well, creating difficulties and that's why we're really happy with the win and the six-point gap. Now it's time to recover and look forward to the next match". Asked about the effect of Eran Zahavi's missing the penalty early in the match, he replied: "It unbalanced us for a little while but then we recovered, we managed to get back into the match again, to be ourselves and control the game. Also after the equaliser, we struggled a bit at that moment, but that consistency I spoke about, the things we're doing, it gives us the capacity and the ability to win the game and also to create more chances to score and get a better result. It's in some part due to the maturity of our players that we got the important result we did today. For weeks I've felt everyone is looking for Maccabi to lose but it's up to us to get that consistency I was talking about because it's not easy".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aXoVLa2F1Q&list=UU-oWQqnf8B8a_TsmVi0mTUg&feature=c4-overview
Asked what the team had learned from the first away encounter with Beer Sheva, coach Sousa responded: "First of all we learned because we lost to them. We were much better in the first game, we managed to control the game much better and created many more opportunities but we didn't win. The ability to score more goals than your opponent, that's the key to winning games. Beer Sheva are growing as a team, in their dynamics but also in their mentality. (Striker Elyaniv) Barda and their goalkeeper (Augustine Ejide) are two key players, Barda because he is very charismatic and provides leadership and maturity to the team but practically we managed to control him very well. We as a team and a club are growing in a culture where it is very difficult to be consistent. But it is a culture that allows you to have a winning mentality, to be settled in difficult moments, to win, to keep progressing, not only here but also abroad". When asked if the victory over Beer Sheva and the six point advantage it has produced have given the team more confidence for the challenging weeks and months ahead, including in Europe, Sousa reacted: "Again, from day one when I arrived I didn't know if we'd win the league, even today because we still have lots of games to play and you can only win this league through consistency. The Europa League is a dream. It was a huge achievement for this club, for our players, because based on what they achieved last year they deserve the credit for how far they've come in Europe. But we still focus on the league, this is our main principle. We want to be consistent in Europe in the future but first we must be consistent in the league".
Defender Carlos Garcia, scorer of Maccabi's second goal, reacted to the question whether the players had been motivated by the general anticipation of his team's losing the match: "The fans of other clubs are waiting to see Maccabi lose every match, every week, so this game was no different for us". Asked if this was the opportunity to show that Maccabi are the top club, he responded: "No, you can only say that at the end of the season. If we win the league, it's because we are the best team in the country. Until now we are the team that have achieved the best results, to be in the position of leading with a gap of six points. But we have to win against all the other teams even if they're not all first in the table. Beer Sheva are very good at set pieces. They scored one very nice goal and that was a difficult moment for us. But you cannot finish a game in six minutes. We knew we'd have to work hard". Reacting to the remark that he was very emotional after scoring his goal, he said: "Always with goals I'm very emotional. It comes from inside, for me when my teammates score I'm also very happy".
Team captain Sheran Yeini said: "We opened the match very well, we were very focused but the red card and the penalty distracted us and we took our foot off the gas a bit. Their goal got them back in the match. We want to be good and fight for all the titles. The season is very long so we shouldn't be looking too far ahead, just toward the next match. We're not interested in loosening up, just in getting our foot back on the gas pedal". Striker Barak Badash, who came off the bench to make his maiden appearance for the club, said: "It's impossible to put the feeling into words, It was a great match for Maccabi and the atmosphere was fantastic. I was a bit nervous at first but then I got down to business and I'm really happy to be a part of this great club. I wanted to score tonight very much but I'll be doing my very best in the matches ahead. The whole week training, it was a bit crazy, the people at Maccabi are terrific and the welcome I got was just brilliant. Everyone was very keen to get on with it ahead of the match and from the very start we were out there to win".
