The morning after the 5:1 victory over Maltese side Hibernians, Maccabi Tel Aviv players gave their final thoughts on the two games and on the upcoming third round of UEFA Champions League qualifying matches against Viktoria Plzen in less than a week. Winger Tal Ben Chaim summed up his play last night as he scored a goal and drew a penalty at Bloomfield Stadium:
"It was fun to come back and play at Bloomfield after the break. The fans and the atmosphere really helped us during the tough minutes we had during the match and the supporters had a big part in helping us advance. We're happy that we were able to do so. This is my third year with the club and we have a terrific team and play especially well at Bloomfield. Hopefully, we will be able to do the same away from home."
Ben Chaim also talked about the thought that Hibernians were a weak club: "They may have been from Malta but they surprised us for the good. They are an excellent team with players that could easily play in the Israeli league. It's not right to say that the gap is very big between us and them. However, we were embarrassed last week by a team that we should have never lost too. Yesterday we saw how important it is for us to go far in Europe. It wasn't easy but we achieved our goal."
Viktoria Plzen, the club that Maccabi will have to face next week at Bloomfield Stadium is very familiar to Ben Chaim: "I played against Plzen in the past and they are a very good club that plays together as a team without any stars. We'll have to work very hard in order to get a good result that will help us when we play away the following week in the Czech Republic."