“We did it the hard way, but sometimes there are games like this in the State Cup tournament.” captain Eran Zahavi commented after Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated Hapoel Rishon Le’Zion 2:1 in extra time. “You have to give credit to Rishon who came into the match and fought for every ball and it definitely wasn’t to our advantage to have to play 120 minutes, but there are no excuses. We played in the Champions League qualifiers and we also played in the Super Cup and we still advanced over Basel. We missed many opportunities and I expect that we will look better in the matches to come.”

On the many missed opportunities:

“It was one of those games where I said that the ball is going into the goal but in the end the keeper made another great save or it deflected over the bar. After we were leading we had a player that was sent off. It’s tough when you get a red card especially in extra time. They gained confidence and began to attack and we barely had any defenders at that point. That’s what it’s like in the State Cup and what’s important is that we moved on.”

About the new striker:

“When Sa came in I had more chances as his introduction freed up space for me to operate in. I was able to score twice on bicycles kicks in the last two matches have, but even a goal from a meter out is fun too. The fact that it was the winning goal was also great. Now our focus is onto Beitar Jerusalem.”

The State Cup competition is not simple:

“There’s no easy match in the State Cup and the same is true concerning the league where every club plays us tough. If we want to win titles we have to keep improving.”