Shota Arveladze, the Yellow & Blue’s Georgian coach discussed his team’s play following the 2:1 win (3:2 on aggregate) at the Netanya Stadium in the second leg of the Second Round of Europa League qualifying. With the victory, Maccabi will head to Romania and a date with Pandurri next week as they play the first leg of the Europa League third round away. The boss talked about his squad, the new recruit, his impressions of the match and of course Captain Gal Alberman’s goal:q
“I was very happy and immediately I looked up. I’m happy for him and the team. It was important and a nice goal.”
Impressions of the match:
“The first half was reasonable and good, we tried to keep the lead way to early and I said all week we shouldn’t do that. When you are at 1:0 you play a game where the ball goes back to the keeper it can cause problems and we only gave up a counter attack to Arshavin.
The second half we lost some balls and it was unacceptable, which made it very dangerous, though we didn’t give up many chances. But you have to give credit to Kairat they had some good wingers and scored a goal. However, we got back into the game and Alberman scored the goal.”
Pandurii is up next:
“We had a tough flight and we are in need of a break, but we are already looking at the next opponent and we will be playing the first game away which gives us short time to recover, but we will have to deal with it.”
Maccabi’s new recruit Oscar Scarione:
“Scarione will probably not play. He was with me in Turkey for three years and he is a good player. He can score goals, defend well and I’m happy for Maccabi and I hope he will have a good season.”
The striker situation:
“If you give Michael Jordan the ball he will score, but we don’t have Michael Jordan. Orlando had a good game but we will have to keep working with him.
About Nosa Igiebor:
“Nosa was very good today. He has to realize that he can do more. He started well and I’m satisfied. But I want more from many players. We are just at the beginning of the way and we will continue to improve.”
Benayoun’s introduction late in the match:
“Yossi is very experienced and he knows what to do and he knows how to be a coach as well. He is someone that the players respect and I’m happy with him.”
