After scoring four goals in a 5:0 victory over Kiryat Shemona, the captain, Eran Zahavi celebrated the win and said goodbye to the coach Slavisa Jokanovic who is leaving the club:
“It’s never pleasant when you have to bid adieu to a coach in the middle of the season, but this was the decision that both the club and coach came to. As the player’s representative I want to say thank you to coach Jokanovic.
We did some great things together. We advanced to the Champions League and I want to wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors,” the captain said. “He made a decision that the club supported as they agreed together that it would be best for both sides, so I just want to wish him all the best.”
On how the club said goodbye to the coach:
“We all came together in the lockerroom following the match. The coach and Jordi came in and said that this was his last game with us. Over the last three years, Maccabi Tel Aviv has had a number of coaches and we’ve had to adapt to that change. I believe that the club is most important and nothing is bigger than the club itself. The players have to know and understand that they have to adapt to these types of things and I’m sure that this is what we will all do.”
Winning the match after the loss to Beer Sheva:
“I think that if you also look at the match we played away at Beer Sheva there were large swathes of time that we were the better side. In last week’s match all of the statistics were in our favor except for the final score. Today we showed a lot of character and proved that the loss to Beer Sheva had no effect on us and that it’s a very long season. Anyone who thought that we were going to easily give up our title were proved wrong today.”
