MTA midfielder Eran Zahavi says the team are going to Greece in a determined mood: "We're prepared and motivated to get a result"
Later on today (Tuesday) the Maccabi Tel Aviv squad will take off for Greece ahead of their match against Greek side Asteras Tripoli F.C. Their first stop will be Athens and from there they'll travel on to the town of Tripoli, where on Thursday at 9.15pm (broadcast on Israeli channel 10), the curtain will rise on the first leg of their Europa League play-off encounter. This morning the team conducted their last practice on Israeli soil, but only after midfielders Eran Zahavi and Gal Alberman faced questions from journalists at a pre-departure press conference.
"Like before any match there's a lot of anticipation," Zahavi began, "especially since this tie will determine the course of our whole European campaign. It's an away tie and we'll have to get a good result, not like with Maribor when we returned with an indifferent result that put us under pressure for the second leg. We're definitely up for it, we're prepared and we're motivated to get a result and I'm confident we'll get it". This past week Maccabi began their run in the "Toto" (League) Cup and Zahavi thinks that's an advantage: "With every day we spend together training we feel better with one another and the connection gets stronger. The Toto Cup matches are good preparation for us, I think more individually than collectively. I don't know if it'll be the same eleven starting on Thursday but it's good for all of us because we all get time on the pitch and feel more confident".
Asked by reporters to predict the result of the forthcoming tie in Greece Gal Alberman responded: "I never try to guess the results of any matches or what might be a good result for us. It's not important to go into a match with a plan ahead of time to get a particular result. Obviously you want to win every match but that depends on the direction the match takes". Having just recently recovered from injury in time to face Hapoel Ra'anana in Saturday's "Toto" (League) Cup tie, Alberman had a word to say about his fitness ahead of Asteras: "I feel good, the idea at the Ra'anana game was to give me a run out to test my match readiness. Since then I've had another full practice so I shouldn't have any problems on Thursday".
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Zahavi has already faced Asteras but he stresses that the team are not primarily focused on Thursday night's opponent: "We know they're a side that plays well at home and because in Greece there are no limitations on foreign players they have a number of South Americans in their squad, technical players who are very comfortable with the ball. But really, we're more focused on ourselves, on what we have to do in the game and not what they have to do. We have some more practices and meetings before the match and I'm confident we'll know whatever it is we have to know".
Zahavi was also asked about the crowd jeering his team-mate Maharan Radi was subjected to in recent games: "I've already said what I have to say on a number of occasions and from personal conversations Mahran knows he has my full support, not everything gets said in public. He knows how much we support him and how hard we're working to cleanse the club, and football in general, of all traces of racism. If there are still people out there with such notions, that's their problem but in any case Mahran feels the support he's getting from all of us and I don't think it worries him too much. I think that an overwhelming majority of fans who come to our matches support Mahran, it's only a minority that are engaged in this nonsense and we'll have to sort them out, but we should keep ourselves focused on the majority that aren't".
Alberman carried on where his team-mate left off: "There's no place for racism in football in general or at Maccabi Tel Aviv in particular. Mahran has said his word on the matter, we're all behind him through thick and thin, when things were not going so well as well as when they were. I'm sure he knows that and we've heard him say it himself".
