Shota Arveladze, the Yellow & Blue’s Georgian boss looked ahead to tomorrow night’s Europa League clash against Russian outfit Zenit St. Petersburg as did captain Gal Alberman:
“It’s been a long way to get here, eight games and four rounds. We deserve to be here in the group stages. The best team in the group is Zenit and they are a Champions League level team. We wanted to get back to Europe and see where we are. We’ve had a good run until now and we are really looking forward to the game.”
Feelings about playing Zenit:
“I’m very happy to face them and the last time I was there was after I finished school. I’m also looking forward to seeing their coach.”
The goal of advancing to the Round of 32:
“We want to do our best in every competition and besides me, the captain and all the players know that’s exactly what we have been saying all along. We have already played 15 games, we know that Zenit is a Champions League level team and we were in that tournament last year. Our target is to get out of the group stage.”
A draw being a good result:
“There are games that sometimes you want to draw and some that you want to win. I haven’t talked to the players as to how many points I want to get. But this is just the beginning, the first game there are other games in the group stage as well. Maccabi will come out and play the best game that they can and see how they can do.”
The personnel for the upcoming game:
“It’s great to hear that the stadium will be full, but we will go game by game and we always think about putting in the best team for each game. We had some injuries after the international games but most of them are fit so we will go game by game and see how it goes.”
The effect of the draw against Beitar on Sunday:
“The match tomorrow is the opening Matchday of the Europa League against a team who has played many years in Champions League. The players know the importance of the game coming up.”
Style of play:
“If you’ve seen the last 15 games we’ve hardly changed much though we always change a bit. We want to always try to play our best game, control the ball and we will try to play a long game and see if our opponents will give us space to do so. I believe that the system we have been playing is the best style for Maccabi to play.”
Captain Gal Alberman spoke about the upcoming Europa League match while also addressing the Champions League campaign from last season:
“We aren’t dealing with past campaigns and you have to remember that for most of the players it was the first time that they ever played at this level. It’s a much stronger competition than the Europa League and we have experience at this actual tournament. Even though the results didn’t show it, the Champions League gave a lot to the players, the team and the club.”
Differences between the domestic league and Europe:
“This is not like the domestic league where we sometimes have an advantage against other teams, but here is a tournament where we are playing some very tough teams that are extremely good. We can’t really think about how many points we can take in the group and we will prepare ourselves properly for each and every game in order to do our best.”
Not starting against Beitar:
“I don’t really want to go into it too much but we have a bunch of important games coming up. The coach is here to make the right personnel decisions and there are many players who want to play who are also quality players. But we have to look at the big picture whether it’s one minute or 120 minutes this will make us a stronger team.”
Boos directed toward ps some of the players at the last match:
“In football, there are good times and times that aren’t as good. The players have always stood together and we stand behind every player. We will not tolerate any fans that won’t support one player or another.”
