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At the end of last night's dramatic derby win, Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach Paulo Sousa was in no mood for holding back his feelings: "One of the most emotional games of my career"

Maccabi Tel Aviv fans awoke this morning all smiles after last night's second 2013/14 season derby triumph, one of the most dramatic last minute victories in the annals of the club's long-standing rivalry with municipal opponents Hapoel Tel Aviv. Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach Paulo Sousa, who celebrated along with his players at the end of the match, was as excited as anyone on the pitch: "This was one of the most emotional games, especially the end of the game. But that happens when the team has the character, the personality, the desire to win games, and especially the derby. From day one I've been talking about the team expressing their emotions through football and the football today would have to have been happy because we expressed those emotions in the derby."

Sousa was also full of admiration for his players: "We worked really well during last week and went over many things. Of course especially if we'd been playing with eleven men we'd have dominated practically the whole game, with more opportunities to score and much more control. Unfortunately we lost one player at the end of the first half and they equalised. We needed to adjust things, we also worked hard with ten men and then we took the decision to modify tactically the lines, the players and we were successful".  Asked if that task was made easier by the presence of a star player like midfielder Eran Zahavi, whose hat-trick provided all the goals in the team's success, Sousa responded: "The team always provide players like Eran the opportunity to perform and deliver what he loves to deliver, scoring, movements of joy and pushing the whole team together, to have the same desire he has, the same passion he has and to express emotions like he expressed today".

Meanwhile man of the match, Eran Zahavi himself, had this to say about his feelings at the game's conclusion: "I'm very happy that I'm able to score in important matches like these, happy for the club but also for the fans who have seen so much joy in recent derby matches. I can only hope we'll continue to provide them with that joy. You'll probably find this hard to believe, but after we equalised at 2-2, I asked (striker Barak) Badash to give me one more ball so I could score. We really believed we could do it and we did and won the match, and for that I'd like to thank all my teammates. Despite the fact that Hapoel dominated after the sending off, which after all is only natural, we stood our ground really well on the pitch and kept them from creating any chances. It was a bit of a flashback to that game last year against Bnei Yehuda (when Maccabi also turned around a 2-1 deficit in injury time), with everyone jumping onto the pitch and screaming, it was madness. I'm glad to have been a part of all this, we're having an absolutely brilliant season, I'm proud of the team, of our fans and of the whole club and let's hope it stays this way".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VU0-DHLKyE&list=UU-oWQqnf8B8a_TsmVi0mTUg

Winger Tal Ben Haim, who came on in the dying moments and drew the foul that lead to the 88th minute penalty that brought the sides level, had a perspective on the mood both on and off the pitch: "I was just doing my job, I went on and helped the team to win. Throughout the whole match everyone on the bench, including myself, believed we could win. Even when we went down 2-1, you could see on the whole team that we had no intention of losing the match. I'm happy we won and I think this is the happiest moment of my career. I went out there all fired up because I wanted to win this one more than any other match, because I've played for Hapoel and even more than the Derby itself it felt good to beat a team I've played for before". After the celebrations, Ben Haim will turn his attentions to the forthcoming play-offs: "There are still 30 points on offer, we've still to play (Hapoel) Beer Sheva, who have more than enough points to win a title, so we'll have to maintain our momentum and safeguard our spot at the top of the table every week".

Defender Eytan Tibi, who has just returned from injury and played well for the full ninety minutes last night, had this to say at the end of the match: "It was hard for me to sit on the side and watch the team play without me, but there's nothing like returning for the derby and winning it. I'm really happy. Our defence has been brilliant all season and that goes for tonight as well. At the same time we took every opportunity we got. It's fair to say that this was one of the best games I've played in at Maccabi. Last year it was Bnei Yehuda and this year it's this derby, even better, because we were down to ten men. But we still have ten matches to play so we can't afford to slacken the pace or get complacent in any of them".