Right before Maccabi heads to Ben Gurion airport for Matchday Three of the Champions League Group Stages, captain Eran Zahavi spoke about the match versus Maccabi Petach Tikva and the transition to European competition this time against Porto, Tuesday 21:45 Israel time.
“We had a tough match against Petach Tikva but most importantly we took the points and increased our lead at the top of the table. After Lifshitz’s red card Tal (Ben Chaim) did a great job and gave us confidence to finish off the game,” Zahavi said with a smile. The captain continued to describe the differences between the match with Petach Tikva and the game before against Akko and how they will go into the Champions League match:
“I think that both the game against Petach Tikva and Akko will help us as every match gets us in better shape. We will be playing a game at a totally different level and we have to get ourselves prepared for that. I really hope we can get a good result and now we’re going to deal with Porto. We want to take some points and make sure we get something out of this campaign. We achieved our goal of making it to this tournament but now we have to try and get something out of it, play solid football and show that we have something to offer at this level. I believe in our team and I hope we can do something this Tuesday.”
About the biggest games being played on Europe’s largest stage:
“As a child you dream about playing on the biggest football stage in the world and that’s where we are. We didn’t come into this just to be here and I hope we can achieve the goals we set for ourselves and succeed in the upcoming match.”
