Avi Rikan, Maccabi Tel Aviv’s defender spoke about the preparations for this evening’s Israel State Cup semifinals match against Bnei Sakhnin at Sammy Ofer Stadium in Haifa, 20:30. Rikan discussed the challenges that lie ahead both on Cup and League play as well as coming back from injury last week:
“I finally recovered from a not so simple injury and it was good to play last match. I’m healthy thank G-d and came into last game with a lot of motivation. I didn’t have much time to prepare but I’m putting in 100% for the State Cup match.”
The State Cup match against Bnei Sakhnin:
“This is a totally different type of match and they’ll be a winner when it’s over be it 90 or 120 minutes. We will put a lot of effort to score goals as we had trouble against Sakhnin last match. We learnt a lot from the last match and we’ll make sure to control the play, attack and score but we have to make sure that we pay attention to our defense as we don’t want to give Sakhnin any opportunities on the counter attack and score.”
Opportunity to win two titles this season:
“There’s only a month left, but there is still a long way to go. Every match right now is money time and every single one of us has to give more than 100%. I’m positive we will all come into the match against Sakhnin ready to go and get off to a good start to our busy month ahead. We know what we have to do and we’ll get the job done.”
A message for the fans:
“Right now we’re focussing 100% of our efforts on the State Cup match and then we can look ahead to Monday’s league game. I know it’s right before the holiday but come out and cheer us on and hopefully we can all celebrate together after the match to make this a very happy holiday.”
