MTA head coach Oscar Garcia knows tomorrow night's match will be a challenge, and captain Sheran Yeini agrees: "At each stage it gets harder"
After having arrived yesterday in Slovenia and settled in at their hotel in the town of Ptuj, the Maccabi squad continued today with their preparations ahead of the first leg of their Champion's League 3rd round qualifier against local titleholders NK Maribor, to be broadcast tomorrow night on Israeli sports channel Sport 5 at 9.30pm. This evening the team held a final pre-match training and a press conference, attended by team captain Sheran Yeini and head coach Oscar Garcia, who began with an assessment of tomorrow night's opponents: "Maribor are a good side with players of quality who are accustomed to playing in European competition. On top of that they've won four domestic league titles on the trot so it will be a difficult match. But we'll try to be prepared and of course look to reach the next stage".
Garcia was asked what he thought the likely outcome of tomorrow's match at Maribor's "Ljudski vrt" stadium might be: "This is a two-leg encounter and tomorrow is just the first 90 minutes. In European competition, especially at the early stages, it's hard to guarantee qualification after just one leg, so it would be foolish to start predicting outcomes. I'm very familiar with Maribor but I also know Real and Barcelona so that won't necessarily change anything. We just want to play well, put on the best display we can. We tried to get information about them so we could prepare ourselves but at the end of the day our lads will play their game and show them how good Israeli football can be".
"We have our game philosophy and we've played with more or less the same system against all our opponents so we feel confident we can apply it against Maribor as well. They may not be up there with Barcelona, Chelsea or Real but Maribor are at a high level in Europe and they have enough quality players to justify it. We know we'll have to score in order to leave ourselves a good chance of reaching the next stage. They've already played more official matches this season than we have, but at this stage no club is in top form and our form is good enough to deal with them".
As one might expect, Oscar was also asked about the influence of the current security situation in Israel: "There are two legs and we would have preferred to play one of them in front of our own fans at Bloomfield Stadium. It's a disadvantage for us but we still feel confident we can qualify".
Team captain Sheran Yeini added: "These are not ideal circumstances for any club, but that's the situation. We're professionals and we have to deal with it". Returning to football, Yeini had a word to say about Maccabi Tel Aviv's first ever Slovenian opponent: "Maribor are a very tactical outfit and have great fans but we have a strong side too so I anticipate a rough encounter. I've learnt that in football, the higher the stage you get the tougher the matches".
Tickets for the match are only available at the local Ljudski Vrt Stadium on Madinska St. in Maribor, and will be on sale for €10 at ticket window C starting two hours before kick-off. A photocopy of your passport will be required to complete the transaction.
