Tonight Maccabi beat Beitar Jerusalem 4-1 at Bloomfield in their fourth top-six playoff tie. Head coach Pako Ayestaran: "The work is not finished"
After his team's comprehensive 4-1 victory over Beitar Jerusalem, a club Maccabi had failed to defeat in their first two league outings of the 2014/15 season, head coach Pako Ayestaran made no effort to hide his delight: "I really enjoyed from minute one. Maybe the second part of the first half was the worst part of the game because we lost our patience a little bit but the first fifteen minutes I think were thoroughly enjoyable, to see the ball flying on the pitch from one position to another, the players arriving in the right position, arriving easily to the wide positions. I am really pleased about the way the team has arrived to the play-off and the way we are playing".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SwbLcADmZI
The coach was also asked about his decision in the second half to send on striker Rade Prica and change the positioning of a number of players on the pitch, in particular winger Tal Ben Chaim: "As soon as Rade was on the pitch, you want to get the best of Rade, and that is finishing into the box. You need a player with a right foot on the right of our attack and when Tal is on the left he always tries to turn to the middle to shoot and with Rade I thought it was better to keep the width from the right and the goal came as well. The games change during the ninety minutes and what happened at the beginning sometimes doesn't happen after half time. The decisions are down to what you see on the pitch".
Asked if he was pleased for Rade, who scored Maccabi's second goal on the night, the Spaniard replied: "Really pleased because he has gone through a very difficult moment, with a long injury that has been difficult. He's put in so much effort to recover that he really deserves this reward. Every player wants to play ninety minutes and wants to be among the eleven starters, but this is a player who, whatever you ask of him, he's ready to give to the team".
Finally, Pako was also asked about the possibility of the team succeeding in the Champions League next season: "We have to be focused on the work, the work is not finished and I think there are important targets to work for for the club. Now we have to think about that this team has to be able to win the championship, and another target that is the Cup. These are the targets that are close by".
