Maccabi Tel Aviv midfielder Avi Rikan began the match against Chelsea in the midfield and ended it as a left back due to Tal Ben Haim’s sending off in the first half. Despite the loss, Maccabi is confident that they’ve been improving throughout the competition as the club continues to aim higher and higher:

“We really wanted to score and do something in this game, but it didn’t work out. We were beaten on a bunch of set pieces, what can you do. We weren’t very happy about the performance for the fans who came out and cheered us on the whole night through. It’s not so simple to support us the way they have been doing due to our results, so I especially want to thank them for their efforts and support.”

On improving throughout the Champions League:

“As every match goes by we feel that we’ve learned something and that we’ve improved. Again, in the case of this game we gave up a bunch of goals and didn’t score any ourselves. But there were times on the pitch during the match where we had a number of chances, however, the way we gave up some really frustrating goals on set pieces didn’t help our cause.”

Battling with Chelsea toe-to-toe:

“We did stand up to them but it wasn’t easy. These guys are the top players in the world. This campaign was a chance for us all to learn about what it takes to play in this type of competition.”