Yuval Shpungin, one of the Yellow-and-Blue’s defenders played his first minutes under new coach Peter Bosz after entering the match against Rishon Le’Zion in the Israel State Cup Round of 16 due to an injury to veteran central defender Tal Ben Haim:
“It’s always great to come back from an injury and play. I’m happy we won and advanced to the next round. I’ll continue to do the best I can for the club.”
Change in the plans:
“We expected that the match wouldn’t be easy, but when you give up an early goal the whole game plan changes. We had to adjust and find our chances but we did and in the end we scored two goals and it was enough to continue on.”
Rishon Le’Zion’s play:
“They are a good team and performed well. They have some professional players and they wanted to show what they could do. For us, playing this second division team was not easy.”
Having to play a match into extra time:
“It wasn’t easy for me and I had only practiced a few times with the club because I wasn’t back to 100%. It also didn’t help matters that I wasn’t playing my natural position but at left back. I’ll do whatever the coach asks me to do and over time I’ll get back to full fitness.”
Most importantly:
“For us, the fact that we won and moved on is the most important thing. I hope that we will finish this year’s tournament how we ended last year’s”
