Veteran midfielder Mahran Radi was pleased with his team's performance on the night, but added: "We've still a lot of hard work ahead of us"
In one match last night Maccabi Tel Aviv succeeded in getting two monkeys off their back: They registered their first win this season against title rivals Ironi Kiryat Shmona and booked a place in the Israeli State Cup semi-finals for the first time in a decade. But it wasn't just the fact that they succeeded but the way they succeeded, 3-0, that is something every Maccabi fan can be proud of. But midfielder Mahran Radi, who was only substituted last night in the last minute of normal match time, explained to the official Maccabi Tel Aviv website that it wasn't as easy as it may have looked: "It was an excellent team effort. From the very first moment we showed a lot of character and responsibility and you could see it in our fighting for every ball. The win began with the front line, they kept up the pressure on the Kiryat Shmona defence every second of the game. Nobody is happier than I am to see us win after all the criticism aimed our way, which we actually deserved. But last night we found the perfect response". Watch the full interview (in Hebrew) here below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH4wUmZVrY0
Maccabi head coach Pako Ayestaran was understandably also pleased about his team's hunger for the titles this season: "We still just have got the Toto Cup and if we want to win something else we have to continue working, fighting, being committed and being focused". Defender Yoav Ziv, who played the full 90 minutes last night and put in a superlative performance, offered one reason of his own for the impressive victory: "The message to our fans and everyone else is simple: If you get behind us from the first minute, behind every Maccabi player on the pitch or off, that makes it all look better, even when the team go through a rough patch".
Striker Barak Badash, who last night scored for the second time this season against his ex Kiryat Shmona at Bloomfield Stadium, was very happy about the way the team booked their place in the State Cup semi-finals: "We talked about it before the match and we said, since everyone's been saying that we can't beat Kiryat Shmona, if we're going to win we should do it in style. Today we did our job well and in front of our own fans too. I think it gave them a boost as well and we could feel that they were behind us, even more than usual".
