Gal Alberman is getting ready for the UEFA Champions League second round qualifying match against Hibernians FC and also looks at some of the advantages Maccabi will have this year compared to last season
Maccabi Tel Aviv has just returned to Israel after a ten-day training camp in Austria and are continuing to prepare for their first official match of the year against Maltese champions, Hibernians FC in the second round of qualifying for the UEFA Champions League.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYADpzZAX-I
As the club gets ready for the match next week, midfielder Gal Alberman had a chance to talk about training camp that just took place in Leoben, Austria.
"I think we did some very good work at training camp," explained Alberman. "We saw throughout the preseason matches that we improved in certain areas, but of course there is still plenty of work to do and the time is short. The goal was to get better from match to match and from training session to training session and I think we did just that. We have to take advantage of every minute of every day that we have left to get ourselves in tip-top shape for the important matches ahead of us."
Alberman and the other Maccabi players had very little time for rest and relaxation, but no one complained: "We didn't have a very big break between last season and this season so we didn't need much time to get back into the swing of things. Of course, it's always hard to come back no matter how long a break there is, but that's it, vacation is behind us. We worked very hard at an extremely intense ten-day training camp and we'll continue full steam ahead."
"I feel really good," Alberman added. "I worked very hard like everyone else did at training camp. You have to remember that this is the goal, to come and work hard to improve oneself and get ready physically as well as tactically. All in all we did very good work in all of these areas."
Last season due to Operation Protective Edge, Maccabi was forced to play its home qualifying matches outside of Israel, however this year the Yellow-and-Blue will return to Bloomfield Stadium.
"Last year we talked a lot about how important it was to be able to play at Bloomfield, especially in European competition. This year we'll have our supporters by our side and Bloomfield will be a huge factor during qualifying. I hope we get a good away result, so when we come back home the stadium will be rocking!"
