The Euro 2016 – UEFA European Championship qualifiers are heading into the home stretch as the Israel National Team is preparing for their final two crucial matches of the tournament. The Blue-and-White are training for their last qualifiers against Cyprus and Belgium that will take place this Saturday and Tuesday nights.
Maccabi Tel Aviv has the most players of any club side in Israel with nine representatives on the National Team. Gili Vermouth spoke exclusively to the Official Website after the players gathered at the Shefayim National Team Training Center and discussed how the preparations are going for their first match, Saturday night at 21:45 in Jerusalem against Cyprus:
“We are all aware as to how important the match against Cyprus is. You could say that the whole campaign is at stake with this one game. We’re feeling good and there’s a lot of positive energy, though it won’t be easy we believe in ourselves and will get the job done.”
On having so many Yellow-and-Blue representatives on the squad:
“It’s usually like this as the best team will have the most players on the National Team. I’m happy for Dor Peretz who got his first call up. He deserved it and he’s just at the start of his career.”
His personal feelings on being called up:
“I was on the team for the last two matches but I didn’t get a chance to play. You could say I was more of a player who was just filling out the squad. However, I’m coming into these games in great shape as I’ve played well recently with Maccabi.”
On how playing in Europe with Maccabi will be helpful:
“Playing in the Champions League gives us more experience and gets us even more prepared for playing international matches. Cyprus is a National Team that’s more or less at our level and the Belgium game will be closer to the matches we’ve had in the Champions League. The Belgians are very strong, but right now we are just concentrating on Cyprus.”
About their next opponent Cyprus:
“When we played Cyprus in Nicosia their wasn’t much of a difference, but whoever saw their last match against Belgium saw that they gave them a very hard time. This is a National Team that plays very well together as a team but I believe we will get a big boost with over 30,000 Israel fans at the game cheering us on.”
What are the chances Israel will advance in the tournament:
“We’re not going to begin figuring out the odds. Each and every player has to keep a positive outlook and be optimistic. Nothing’s guaranteed in football but we will do the best that we can.”
