Jordi Cruyff, the Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach looked back at his side’s 1:0 win over Panionios of Greece in the first leg of Europa League Third Round Qualifying. Cruyff spoke about next week’s second leg, Cristian Battocchio and about the match itself:
Jordi Cruyff Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach https://t.co/XjPOW6scHV
— Maccabi Tel-Aviv (@MaccabiTLVFC) July 27, 2017
“It was not a good game and we struggled to get into the game, to control the ball and the tempo. Over the last 15 minutes we ended up dropping back and we didn’t push for a second goal. When you don’t have a good game it’s also important to win and we did 1:0.”
Finding balance:
“We don’t have the 100% balance and we are missing some players that we hope will come back soon. We also missed some pace and we hope that we can bring in players to compensate the squad.”
Scoring in the second half:
“We scored about 90% in the second half, but we will solve it. The decision makers understand that we need to compensate for the squad and we have to be dangerous and attack.”
About Cristian Battocchio:
“I thought he was one of the players who gave us creativity. It wasn’t my intention to play him 90 minutes but he knew what to do with the ball at every moment and his forward passing was good. I’m happy with his first start.”
Beer Sheva’s passion and play in their Champions League qualifier last evening:
“Beer Sheva is a team that has kept most of their good players and they have played together for some time. We lost some players and we will have to bring in players to make some changes.”
Preparing for the next match in Greece:
“My main concern will be how we look and we will always try to improve ourselves. We knew that they would play direct and physical. They smelt opportunities near the end of the game and they created some chances.”
Toto Cup Bnei Yehuda match on Sunday:
“The players who played tonight are tired and we have a very important game next Thursday so we will give a chance to some players that haven’t played much.”
