Striker Eden Ben Basat last night celebrated his first league goal for Maccabi Tel Aviv: "I always thought the night would end like that"
After beating Maccabi Haifa last night, today the Maccabi Tel Aviv squad enjoyed a hard-earned day off before returning to the practice pitch tomorrow evening to begin preparations for Sunday night's encounter with Hapoel Acre. Following last night's match, head coach Pako Ayestaran was asked if he was happy with his team's performance: "I think we have more potential, more quality than what we showed today. We weren't fluent in the middle of the pitch, we were quite slow and to be honest I didn't really enjoy the game. But I can't say the same about the effort, the effort of the players was great, but I think we can do a lot better. Sometimes when you analyse more than the result you cannot be satisfied, and I'm not".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nxt8eEHW0k&feature=youtu.be
The quick pace of the game often found expression in long balls past the opposition defence, resulting, among other things, in Haifa's first red card of the match. Was that intentional? Pako: "No. The question is sometimes we try to play short and when the defenders are far from their goal we try to play over. But it depends on the game, it depends on the positions, but they were quite good balls and accurate". He continued: "Haifa are a team for transitions and they have different qualities. They're a team that are doing very well in transitions, especially because they have two really wide players who are quite fast, both of them, and we knew that this could happen. Sometimes the coverage wasn't good enough and as we saw in the first minutes they had their chances. And you know, if they had scored everything could have changed. It's a great result, but as I told you before I think for me if we want to be more regular in getting three points we still have to improve our game".
The Spaniard also had a word to say about Serbian midfielder Nikola Mitrovic, who put in a good overal performance and whose timely cross resulted in Maccabi Tel Aviv's second goal: "Of course he's one of the players who has appeared more regularly in midfield. But today to be honest today in midfield none of the players were dynamic enough or fluent enough, they weren't able to take the right positions and as I told you before I think we can do a lot better. We still have great room for improvement". And Swedish striker Rade Prica, who for the second game running was left out of the squad? Pako: "Every week there is going to be someone disappointed. Sometimes it will be Rade Prica, other times it will be Eden, you never know. I will have to ask the Federation to let me take 20 players. It's the only chance I've got I think. Sometimes the players make it easy, because sometimes during the week they show you that some players don't deserve to come in the squad. As I told them this morning, this week there wasn't one player who didn't deserve to come in the squad. But I have the limit of 18 and I have to choose. He's (Prica) a great player because he has shown in the past that he's committed, he's professional, he does everything 100%, but I have to choose. The question is I can't see Rade Prica playing as a left back".
Nikola Mitrovic himself was asked after the match to give his take on the evening's opponents: "They're a really good team but we had the luck that they got the red card, we controlled the game most of the time and in the end we won. This is the most important thing for us. I think that for a few moments it was true, we didn't control the game, but most of the time we did. We had many good chances to score. The more you score off those chances the better the result".
He was also asked about the summer, when there were indications he might leave the club: "It's past. I got strong mentally from this situation and that's it. I got back to working like before and that's it. For me the most important thing is to work, before, now and for the future". And what did he think of playing alongside Mahran Radi and Gal Alberman in midfield? "For me it doesn't matter. I respect all of my team-mates. I can play, or Gal or Mahran, it doesn't matter who plays. I always try to do what the coach asks of me. For example last year (former Maccabi head coach) Paulo (Sousa) sometimes asked me to play more defensively, I tried to provide an answer. Pako is now asking completely other things and I always try to give my best for what the coach asks of me".
Striker Eden Ben Basat, who last night scored his first Maccabi Tel Aviv league goal in style, also shared his thoughts after the game: "The atmosphere in the stadium was brilliant. Both groups of supporters deserve credit for that, that's the way every match should be. I kept thinking, this is the way I want this night to finish. I really wanted to score, I was just waiting for it and I'm very happy it happened. What's most important is that I carry on this way. It's not that I was particularly motivated to score against (former club) Maccabi Haifa. I'm motivated for every game. You just take one look around in the stadium and it completely fills you up. I'd like to see every stadium like that".
He also addressed the fact that he's only been in the first eleven for one match so far this season: "I'm always looking ahead. Ok, maybe it's not the greatest feeling not playing or even putting on your kit, I mean everyone here is competing for a place on the match squad and the first eleven, me too. Of course I'd like to start every match but it's not up to me, that's what the coaching staff and the head coach are for. I'm working hard and in the end it'll pay off. The level at this club is very high, they're all top players and everyone wants to be in the match squad and the first eleven. I do my work and I'm here to serve Maccabi Tel Aviv. Like I said, I just hope to work hard and see the results in the end".
