Slavisa Jokanovic, Maccabi Tel Aviv’s head coach addressed the media about their upcoming match with Beitar Jerusalem on Monday October 26th, 20:55 at Bloomfield Stadium. The Yellow-and-Blue will begin a busy week that also includes a Toto Cup clash Wednesday against Bnei Yehuda and a Derby this coming Saturday evening.

“We have a very important match tomorrow and just two days later we have a game against Bnei Yehuda, I don’t know how we have such a schedule like this. I don’t see the reason of having to play three games in one week. We are the only Israeli club playing and representing Israel in Europe and the league must help us out with the schedule of games. We will play the matches but I’m not even thinking of Wednesday’s match just yet. In my opinion whoever comes up with the schedule doesn’t understand football.

On his relationship with Beitar’s coach:

“I know Slobodan for quite a while. That’s life, you never know when you’ll meet people in the future and I’m happy that we are together again. But tomorrow we will put our friendship aside and play the match.”

Transitioning between the competitions:

“It’s not that difficult to play in the different competitions. We have a responsibility to be ready for every situation. We are football players and tomorrow we will come into a packed stadium where all of the fans want to see us win. That’s motivation enough. We are privileged to be working in this profession and we will be ready. We lost the Champions League match and we have the opportunity to correct what went wrong last game.”

The latest on Igiebor and Radonjic’s injuries:

“Both Nosa and Dejan have improved but they won’t be available for the upcoming match.”