The Yellow-and-Blue visited Levita Stadium and Hapoel Kfar Saba for the first time in seven years as Maccabi looked to continue its strong league play prior to heading out to Kiev for Matchday Six of the UEFA Champions League. After a quiet first half, the visitors turned up the offense but couldn’t find the winner as the two sides finished the match scoreless.
Maccabi Tel Aviv coach Slavisa Jokanovic made a few changes from the lineup that defeated Maccabi Netanya 4:0 last week as the Serbian went with a back four of Eli Dasa, Tal Ben Haim, Carlos Garcia and Omri Ben Harush in front of keeper Predrag Rajkovic. The midfield featured Gal Alberman, Nosa Igiebor and red hot Shlomi Azulay just behind Avi Rikan, winger Tal Ben Chaim and the captain Eran Zahavi. Eitan Tibi, Dor Peretz and Gili Vermouth went to the bench and were joined by Daniel Lifshitz, Barak Itzhaki, Dor Micha and Nikola Mitrovic.
Winger Ben Chaim had the first chance of the game when his 13th minute 30 meter shot was picked off by Kfar Saba keeper, 40-year old Ohad Cohen. Azulay then found Rikan whose midair chance was pushed aside by Cohen as Zahavi couldn’t find the handle on the ball for a follow up opportunity. Azulay coming off his Man of the Match performance last week against Bnei Yehuda lifted a terrific pass to Zahavi but his scissors kick opportunity was off of the mark in the 27th minute.
In the 40th minute Zahavi found Rikan on the left but his shot went over the goal and Azulay’s 44th minute screamer was easily handled by Cohen. Kfar Saba tried to find a goal on a number of counter attacks led by Mavis Tchibota but each opportunity was collected up by Yellow-and-Blue keeper Rajkovic to keep the match scoreless as the sides headed into halftime.
Jokanovic introduced Itzhaki for Rikan to begin the second half with Peretz coming on for Azulay in the 53rd minute to try and ignite the Maccabi offense. Peretz had two fantastic opportunities in the 65th and 67th minutes as the midfielder skied both chances over the goal, the first from outside the box and the second inches from the Kfar Saba line. Maccabi made their third and final substitution in the 75th minute bringing in Mitrovic for Igiebor and just seconds later Peretz’s additional close range chance was blocked. On the ensuing counter Rajkovic was up to the task and cleaned up Ben Haim’s error as Hugo Lopez’s scorcher was smartly saved by the Serbian keeper.
With Maccabi pressing for a goal, Zahavi’s brilliant shot was caught by Cohen to keep the clean sheet intact as the teams entered the final ten minutes of the match. Ben Harush’s hard shot from outside of the box was caught by Cohen in the 84th minute, Dasa’s chance was saved by Cohen and Ben Chaim’s rifle went over the bar as the two teams split the points in a goalless draw. Maccabi is now tied for first place on points with Hapoel Beer Sheva with 29 points.
