The Yellow-and-Blue will take on FC Porto at 21:45 Israel time tomorrow October 20th as they will look to pick up their first points of the Champions League Group Stages. Maccabi arrived at the Dragao Stadium in the evening for their last training session prior to the match but just before coach Slavisa Jokanovic and defender Carlos Garcia represented Maccabi at the press conference. Jokanovic opened with the following:

“I’m happy to be here. This is new for both me and the players. I’d prefer to be in this stadium rather than watching Porto taking on Basel. We’re still learning. Chelsea and Dynamo defeated us but I expect that we will play better tomorrow than we have in the pervious matches. My goal is to win the game and that’s what we want to do tomorrow. We are playing a very difficult team and we respect them but firstly we have to respect ourselves and our supporters. We came here to fight, to implement our game plan and to try and win the match.

Maccabi has given up early goals in the other matches:

“To compete at this level we must be very sharp. We won’t have many opportunities to score and we will have to make sure we don’t give up an early goal. The solution to this problem is to have the mentality to work and fight on the pitch as a team. I expect that we will play better than the previous games.”

On tomorrow’s opponent:

“Porto is one of the best European clubs. They are five time Champions of Europe and had a wonderful year under coach Julen Lopetgui and this year they opened well again. Our team is in the best shape. Portuguese football always does a good job in European competition and it’s a great chance to test ourselves out against Porto and against Portuguese football. Like I said we are going to face one of the best club’s in the country. They have many good players that will either be on the pitch or on the bench and all can control the game very well. It’s. It a question about a player here or there.

About his personal relationship with the Porto coach:

I remember Julen Lopetgui when I was with Deportivo de la Coruna. He was a veteran ‘keeper on Spanish league teams and is now a wonderful clash who is leading Porto. I hope we will be a let o stop him tomorrow.”

Carlos Garcia was asked about Maccabi and the history of the Yellow-and-Blue:

“Maccabi is the biggest club in Israel and its history is also. We are also now writing history with the team. Israeli football improves from year to year. We of course respect Porto but we will try to use one of secret weapons in order to win the game. In the domestic league we have foreign players from South America, Europe and Africa. But in Europe we are facing much bigger teams than us.”

On his personal abilities:

“I feel good and I will try to help the club be it at practice, in the bench or in the starting lineup. If I do start I will do everything I can for Maccabi. Of course I’m always ready to start and I’m available when the club needs me.”