Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach Paulo Sousa was pleased with his side's 0-2 victory over Hapoel Ra'anana that maintained their lead of four points ahead of Hapoel Beer Sheva: "They are doing really well, but so are we"
"It was a difficult week for us with the results, results with lots of heart", Maccabi head coach Paulo Sousa remarked directly after his side's 0-2 victory over Hapoel Ra'anana that finished off a week of three matches in the league and in Europe. "But I'm really happy and proud of my players because also with all the difficulties and demands at this moment we won and we won keeping a clean sheet". Asked if he anticipated his players being a bit tired for this match after such a strenuous week he said: "It's normal. It's something I've been saying for a while. The teams that play in Europe, and especially our team, who are not used to playing in all these competitions, and with all the intensity the competition demands, for all this I'm really pleased with the result".
Sousa also spoke about the neck-and-neck race at the top of the domestic league, with Hapoel Beer Sheva closely shadowing Maccabi at a distance of four points: "It's a new thing for us. First of all because for ten years we didn't win the league, like for example Maccabi Haifa, who in the last ten years have won I think six or seven times. They are used to this, now we have to get used to it. When you win the title it's quite difficult to repeat because our opponents are always looking for ways to get better. And this season one of those opponents is doing really well. But like I said, so are we. We keep winning, we stay at the top of the league and so far the players have shown me they know how to handle this pressure".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmaFNQq4-AI&feature=c4-overview&list=UU-oWQqnf8B8a_TsmVi0mTUg
Scorer of Maccabi's second goal and his 15th league goal this season, midfielder Eran Zahavi, had this to say at the end of the match: "Not one of our best outings, but don't forget we've just returned from Basel after a very busy fortnight. What's most important is that we've returned to the business of winning our league matches and taking all three points and I'm very happy about that. Now we have to look ahead so we can improve our performances. We've only ourselves to think about, it's entirely up to us. We want to carry on making progress and playing well. Now that we've finished our European campaign we can return our focus to the league and hope that we get into a run of good form". As for the fans he said: "The fans want to see us play well and we want to play well. Don't forget that we didn't have much time to practise ahead of this match, we just got back from Switzerland on Friday. Hapoel Ra'anana played really well, you can see the head coach has done very good work there. At the end of the day we won the match and right now that's the most important thing".
Team captain Sheran Yeini also spoke about the week the team have endured: "You tell yourself every week you're not tired but let's face it, matches against a team like Basel are not like domestic league encounters. Not only that, we've played twelve more games than most of the teams here in the league and the matches against Basel were very exhausting. You can't imagine at what level you have to play, even mentally, I mean to be completely focused every minute and still they were far ahead of us. I hope that in future we can accumulate the experience and the tradition that will enable us to beat even clubs like that. I have great faith in how our team are developing".
Defender Yoav Ziv, who was in the starting line-up for all three games the team played this week, spoke about what last night's victory meant to him: "It was extremely important to get back to the league and take all three points. Perhaps we didn't play that well but we put our hearts and souls into this one. What you saw was a lot of determination, lots of covering for one another and self-sacrifice. And when players got injured all the lads supported them or dedicated the victory to them, like in the case of Eran Zahavi dedicating his goal to (injured striker) Barak Itzhaki. (Defender) Eytan Tibi was also injured in the game and that creates even more pressure but at least now we can be more focused on the league".
Ziv went into more detail about Itzhaki's injury and what influence that was having on the atmosphere in the dressing room: "It's a very big thing. When you see this happen to an important player like him, who's just returned to the top of his game after a similar injury, of course that has a big effect. Obviously you want to do everything you can to make up for his absence, but still everyone is affected by it".
