After qualifying for the last 16 of the State Cup, head coach Pako Ayestaran made no secret of the club's targets for the current season
Last night head coach Pako Ayestaran saw his Maccabi Tel Aviv side make easy work of their eighth round State Cup tie against second division side Beitar Tel Aviv/Ramla, winning by a convincing 1-4 margin. After the match it was remarked that this was the first time this particular eleven had played together. Pako: "Yes, and still they performed. I think I've been defending from the beginning that we've got a good squad and I have to try to get the best from them. And they have shown they are capable of performing. In the first half maybe we weren't as fluent as in the second half. But in the second half, playing with a proper holding midfielder, I think we played quite a good game".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh4rAPS_Pn4
Questioned whether he would take the State Cup competition more seriously than his predecessors, the Spaniard replied: "I take every game with the idea of winning. At the beginning of the season we set the targets, we are going to try to fight for the three (domestic) trophies. In this case it's one trophy we would like to be in for till the end. There are still three games till the final and we are going to try to be there".
As for the return of the long-injured striker Barak Itzhaki, the coach said: "One of the things I think Barak Itzhaki has is confidence. He believes in himself and all of you know the quality he's got. The question is to get him in the right sharpness to be fit enough to approach 90 minutes of a game. Today we tried to keep him on the pitch as long as he could because I think it's good for him and good for the team. Now we hope to see more of Barak Itzhaki in the future".
Young international midfielder Ben Reichert, who last night was in the first eleven and scored the team's fourth goal, had this to say after the match: "It's always magic to score a goal and it's even better when it helps the team win. There's a lot of competition for every place in the squad and that makes all of us play better. The scrap for places is good for everybody because eveyone's trying to prove to the coach that they belong in the squad and in the first eleven".
