Gal Alberman, Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Captain discussed his side’s 2:1 Matchday Two win over SC Ashdod at the Yud Alef Stadium. Number 6 also talked about getting back to the Europa League, the club’s defensive issues and of course the victory itself:
“It’s one of the toughest fields to play on and I don’t remember how many victories we had here other than two years ago when we won 1:0 after a rough contest. But the bottom line is we needed the 3 points but we still have to play a bit better. Ashdod is a quality side that can give problems to many teams.”
Playing in Split:
“Even though I didn’t play in Croatia, it wasn’t easy to play just a few days after 120 minutes and there were at least four or five players that played both there and here. But it’s just an excuse and we didn’t come in here complacent. Like I said before, it’s a tough pitch to play on but we did our job and we did what we had to do. We scored a pair of goals and we’ll go into the international break with 6 points.”
Defensive issues:
“It’s hard to pick out a specific problem, but there is what to improve on. We have played a number of quality teams that we were able to stop, however today Ashdod had a number of chances more than usual. Again I’m not sure what the exact issue is but we will continue to work on the things that we can improve before the next league match, but all in all we’ll continue to improve in every aspect of our game.”
Maccabi back in the Europa League:
“We worked very hard to get to this point. We played 8 matches and had a number of long flights and journeys but we made it back to the Europa League and it was something that we really wanted, as players, for the Club and for the fans. We have to make sure we play well in the league and whatever we accomplish in Europe from this point on is a bonus.”
