Shlomi Azulay played a full 90 minutes in Saturday’s 3:0 victory over Hapoel Haifa at Sammy Ofer Stadium. The midfielder came over to the Yellow-and-Blue with Eli Dasa a few months ago and is beginning to play a more important role for the team after returning from injury:

On the club’s performance prior to the Champions League match:

“It’s always good to come back and win especially after our poor performance against Netanya. Now we have to focus on the match against Chelsea.”

About moving to the top of the table:

“We don’t really listen to what’s going on in the media and we concentrate on our work on the pitch. Right now we are in first place and there’s no question that we have to keep improving both in training and in the actual matches.”

Coming back from the two week break:

“The break was good to get our energy back. Now it’s time to get back to work, we played yesterday and we’ll play on Tuesday. We will do the best that we can to collect points.”

Getting back into the starting lineup:

“It’s been awhile since I played a full match and it felt good. I hope that it continues this way and I have more chances to play and help the team. Right now there’s a lot of competition to get into the lineup and we have to constantly prove ourselves. A player that wants to reach the highest levels must give it their all and that’s why I came to Maccabi.”