Head coach Peter Bosz’s side collected three very valuable points in the championship race as the Yellow-and-Blue picked up the 1:0 victory over a defensive minded Bnei Sakhnin. The Dutchman spoke about how his club performed, next week’s battle for first place and of course the importance of the victory:

“Today’s match, especially the first half was fantastic. We created opportunities and we played a very high tempo match. We saw how they played against Beer Sheva last week and they are very dangerous on the counterattack. It wasn’t very good for my health that we scored so late in the match. The second half wasn’t as good but I’m very satisfied with the win.”

On the second half substitutions:

“This was a game that we were in full control of. They weren’t dangerous on the counterattack but we didn’t create enough chances to score. After 70 minutes of play, I wanted to introduce players who could play in tight areas with not a lot of room to operate. Barak Itzhaki is an excellent player for these types of situations and the difference between Gal Alberman and Shlomi Azulay is that Shlomi is a player that plays more offensively. It may have been a risk but a draw wasn’t an option for us. I believe in these players.”

About the captain’s contribution:

“Eran Zahavi is a fantastic player and very important. Football is about goals and he’s our goalscorer, but Maccabi is not just Zahavi. Orlando Sa’s assist was excellent and our defenders played a wonderful game.”

Looking ahead to next week:

“I’m still thinking about the match. The game against Beer Sheva was not my priority up until now. Starting tomorrow it will be my main focus.”

The style of the match:

“If we would’ve scored two goals in the first half things would have been quite different. In my opinion this was one of our better games. The difference between this match and last week’s was that our opponent wanted to play football then and we were able to score more.”

Next year’s stadium:

“This is not a question for me, but I’d be happy to play in a stadium where the crowd sits close to the action and that the pitch is as good as Bloomfield’s because it’s essential to our game.”