Maccabi Tel Aviv returns to the Israeli league against Hapoel Acre this Saturday, 20:00 at Bloomfield Stadium. Eli Dasa, the club’s right back spoke to the official website about his experiences playing both in Europe and in the domestic league, the upcoming match against Hapoel Acre and his transfer to the Yellow-and-Blue:

Thoughts on the Dynamo Kiev match that was and the upcoming games:

 “For me it was a wonderful experience to play in the Champions League, we’re not happy with the result but we have to look forward and we have a long road ahead of us. We gave everything we had but it wasn’t enough as the level of play was very high. We have a lot of goals ahead of us and right now we’re turning our attention to the match on Saturday against Hapoel Acre.”

What is it like to play in both the Israeli league and the Champions League:

“For me it’s something that I’m facing for the first time, playing at the same time in both the Israeli league and the Champions League. A team like Maccabi has to be a dominant force in Israel and it’s something that we can’t automatically do when we play in Europe. We have an excellent professional staff including coaches and doctors who are helping us learn how to deal with this type of situation both from a mental and physical point of view.”

Where do you see the differences between the competitions:

“We can split it up into two different pieces. We come into league games and we have to fight all match to win and we can come away with a victory in the last minutes of the game. On the other hand we are playing in Europe which is much more difficult against extremely fast and physical teams and we have to fight for every single ball, pass and play that we are not used to doing. However, this doesn’t give us the opportunity to relax in the league and we have to play our best in every match.”

Hapoel Acre has been a surprise story so far this season:

“Acre opened up the year very well. They beat one of our biggest competitors for the title in Beer Sheva and that says it all. We’ll be ready for a tough match and find a way to take all the points in the upcoming game.”

Is this another test as how you move from European matches back to the Israeli league:

“We can’t spend too much time thinking about going from Europe to the Israeli league. Like I said before we have an excellent training staff that can prepare us properly for both of these competitions and as professional players we also know how to make this transition.”

On the amazing atmosphere and support at the European matches:

“When you end games in losses like we did in London 4:0 to Chelsea and at home 2:0 against Dynamo Kiev and you see the fans going crazy like you’ve won it gives you a lot of inspiration and    a terrific feeling that you want to give back to the fans even more. It’s too bad we couldn’t give them back a better result or even a goal but I want to tip my hat to the crowd on the unbelievable job they are doing supporting us.”

How has this European experience been different than others:

“It’s a different competition between the Europa League and the Champions League. We started very well at home against Ordabasy but then I picked up a red card in Charleroi, but you can’t compare the two tournaments. The experience is totally different as well, but now I’m with Maccabi and I’ll leave what was in the past in the past and deal with the current situation that I’m in now.”

On moving from Beitar to Maccabi:

“The talk about me moving to Maccabi Tel Aviv if they advanced to the Champions League began when I was playing with Beitar Jerusalem in the Europa League but I didn’t really think too much about it. The transfer happened very quickly and as a young player it was an incredible feeling. This is the dream of every child but I will have to continue to learn and gain more experience from these situations.”