Peter Bosz looked back at his club’s fantastic State Cup semifinal win at Sammy Ofer Stadium in Haifa as Maccabi will have the opportunity to defend their title in Jerusalem against Maccabi Haifa. The Dutchman spoke about making it to the final, his feelings about the way his squad played and the controversy surrounding Maccabi’s first goal:

“I always tell the truth and I’m really glad that in this country we can give our opinion. Many times when a player is injured we never know if he is really injured or not and we have to put the ball out. In Holland, we leave the decision of a player being injured to the referee who is objective and not to the players. Since I’ve been in Israel, Maccabi has been the stronger team in almost every match. I’ve seen that keepers will waste time after only 10 minutes of play. As a coach I am angry as this is also not very sportsman like.”

Looking back and looking ahead:

“This was a semifinal and it was a very important game. Maccabi didn’t begin well and Bnei Sakhnin scored the first goal after a few good chances. I do know that Zahavi scored a goal that was not offside but on Monday we have to play football and fast football. We must play better than today.”

Monday’s rematch against Bnei Sakhnin in League play:

“I hope we will play better. I’ll watch the full 90 minutes to see what we can do better for next match. We didn’t defend well as they had four good chances in front of our keeper. I’ll have to take a good look back at the match.”

The fans:

“I was really angry at halftime and we can’t play a semifinal like this. We can’t let our opponent be more aggressive than us. We made a mistake on the second goal but I’m really happy and proud that we came back to win 3:2 in 90 minutes. The fans stayed behind the team even when we were down and they continued to support us, that made a big difference.”

Barak Itzhaki starting in place of Orlando Sa:

“Orlando had a rough time the last little and hadn’t scored in a while and Barak has trained well so we made a change up front.”

Backing up Tal Ben Chaim:

“When I was a player I would have played the ball and I support Tal Ben Chaim with his decision as we didn’t truly know the status of the injured player.”

Feelings about heading to the State Cup Final in Jerusalem:

“Proud, excited and curious as I’ve been told that it’s a big prize here in Israel. I had two objectives coming here a few months ago which was to win the title and the Cup and we are on the way.”