Dor Peretz is having an interesting season. The Maccabi midfielder played many minutes at the beginning of the year but has had to be patient on the bench for much of the second half of the campaign. However, the youngster has shown his abilities of late and Peter Bosz gave him a place in the Starting XI against Bnei Sakhnin in the State Cup semifinal:

“It was a lot of fun to play and even more so because we advanced to the final. The result in these types of games is often more important than how we actually played. Of course, we will learn from the match and look to improve what needs to be improved.”

On the claims that the Itzhaki goal was unsportsmanlike:

“We have very clear instructions on this matter from the coach. The referee is the only one who can make the decision in this type of case. We don’t make these types of decisions as it’s not our role to do so. We continued to play and that’s what was supposed to happen as far as I’m concerned.

From that moment on the match became much more aggressive and then it went back to normal. Sometimes things happen during the heat of the match and there’s no question that this riled things up a bit more than it had been at the beginning.”

About Gal Alberman:

“I have a great teacher in Gal Alberman and he has really helped me along the way. It’s a privilege to be able to learn from him. There’s no question his shoes will be very hard to fill but he is really such a good help. I think I’ve been able to take many of the things that I’ve learned from him and applied it to my own game.”

Facing Maccabi Haifa in the final:

“It’s a huge match between two giants. Right now, we’re just concentrating on the league but when we get to that game there’s no question how interesting a matchup it will be.”