Prior to Maccabi Tel Aviv's UEFA Champions League third round qualifying match at Bloomfield Stadium on Tuesday night, the captain of the Yellow-and-Blue Eran Zahavi spoke to the media and discussed the upcoming first-leg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDdMWx94Tsg
Have you and the team been able to adapt to Coach Slavisa Jokanovic's style and expectations?
It's still very early on and at this point of the season, it's not like it's the middle or end of the year so we are still learning what the coach wants us to do. But we will keep improving and get to a point where we are totally attuned to what needs to be done on the pitch.
The last two years Maccabi had problems passing this stage in the competition, what will be different this year?
When we played against Basel and Maribor we could have advanced but in each case we were missing something. Last year we played our home matches in Cyprus, this year we will be at home in Bloomfield so that will be a huge help.
What do you know about Plzen and do you think Maccabi can advance?
Plzen is a well managed team and they have played in the Champions League a number of times over the past few years. We are playing at home and there is no reason why we can't move ahead this year. We want to do well in Europe and we have expectations. I'm not sure who will win, but things are pretty even and we will see what happens on the pitch but hopefully we will advance to the next stage. We will do everything in our power to make sure that we can sit here in another press conference in the middle of August to talk about the Champions League playoffs.
The team brought in Avi Rikan last week, where do things stand with bringing in other players?
I've discussed the situation about bringing in new players before, but we have a great squad here so the club will only bring players in that they feel will help the team. It's up to Jordi Cruyff & Mitch Goldhar to see if that will be the case.
Eran, you look very relaxed at this press conference, how will you be before the match tomorrow night?
In a press condolence I have to be relaxed and calm. Tomorrow on the pitch it's a different story. I believe you'll see a football match at a very high level and I can't wait to play!
