Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach Peter Bosz spoke about his team’s 2:1 victory over Hapoel Haifa at Bloomfield Stadium just a few weeks prior to the WINNER League playoff round which begins in March. The Dutchman spoke about playing before Beer Sheva, the defense and the game:

“I wanted to see a good Maccabi 70 minutes before we scored the goal and this is not the Maccabi I want to see. The first half was not good and the tempo was too low. We didn’t break Hapoel Haifa’s wall and that was because we played a very low tempo and touched the ball too many times. We weren’t creative enough.

In the second half we tried to change some things and we put out two extra strikers and played with only two midfield players. From then on it was much better. We saw that Maccabi can play high tempo and create a lot of chances and at the end Maccabi played well.”

On Tal Ben Chaim coming in as a substitute:

“Last week against Netanya he did well as a substitute and this is how he can convince us that he can start the games. He did very well, we needed him and he was there for us.”

The club’s defense:

“This has nothing to do with the defense. If you analyze the goal it was after a corner kick. The whole team has to defend corner kicks and they scored off a rebound. It was a good goal but it can’t happen. It has nothing to do with the defense, but how we defend.”

Playing before Beer Sheva:

“For the media it made a difference that we played before Beer Sheva. I’m not sure how they handled it. For 70 minutes they were happy, but then we ended up winning. Since I arrived we have played after Beer Sheva so I’ll watch their match on Monday and see how they handle the pressure.”