Maccabi Tel Aviv kept within three points of table leaders Hapoel Beer Sheva after defeating Hapoel Ashkelon 2:1 at Sala Stadium. The Head Coach Lito Vidigal summed up his side’s victory and reference his club’s second half effort: “We had a good game and most importantly we earned three points. We are now thinking about the next game. However, we can’t give up a goal in the 90th minute. We must be focused for the full 90+ minutes because if we aren’t we may be upset in a different game.”
The title race against Hapoel Beer Sheva:
“Right now we aren’t dealing with the title race. We are just focusing on our way and how we prepare and organize ourselves as best as we can for the next game.”
One of the players who ran the most in the match was midfielder Yossi Benayoun who didn’t find the back of the goal but came awfully close: “I bring a lot of energy from my desire to play hard and win the match. I’m not really concerned about how much I ran, most important we won the match this evening.”
Number 51 also spoke about the match itself:
“We knew it would be tough. The first match in Netanya finished 0:0 and this game was difficult and very close. Thankfully we knew to take an early lead and we were then able to continue to go forward and score a second goal. After the second goal we went backwards a bit as we thought it was over. Ashkelon deserves a lot of credit for taking advantage of that and scored a goal. What’s important is that we took the points.”
The Championship battle:
“The matches are difficult. Beer Sheva had a tough time yesterday at Ashdod and we had a tough time this evening. We have to come in ready to go each match, work hard and win the contests. Even in games that we don’t play as well we need to know how to take the three points. If we can keep up this rate then the title will be decided when we play the two matches against Beer Sheva. There are a lot of tough teams in the Championship Playoffs. In order to get to this point we must focus on the next game and win it.”
