The Yellow & Blue advanced to the third round of Europa League qualifying after wrapping up a tidy 2:0 away victory thanks to goals by Omer Atzily and substitute Dor Peretz for a 5:1 aggregate win over the two matches. Next Thursday, July 27th at 19:45 Maccabi Tel Aviv will host Panionios of Greece while the return leg will be the following week in Athens.
Head Coach Jordi Cruyff had a new wrinkle in his Starting XI as both Icelander Vidar Kjartansson and American-Israeli Aaron Schoenfeld featured for the Yellow & Blue along with Omer Atzily up front. Captain Sheran Yeini, Avi Rikan and Eyal Golasa manned the midfield while Yuval Shpungin, Tal Ben Haim, Eitan Tibi and Ofir Davidzada were the defense quartet for keeper Predrag Rajikovic.
Available on the bench were keeper Daniel Tenenbaum, Eliel Peretz, Dor Peretz, Yonatan Cohen, Barak Itzhaki, Shlomi Azulay and Cristian Battocchio.
First Half
After a quiet first ten minutes, Davidzada swung a ball into the box from the left side to Kjaratnsson, but his header missed the target while Golasa sent the ball to Atzliy who in turn attempted to hand it off to Schoenfeld, but the ball just missed his head as the score remained goalless early on. Eitan Tibi was booked in the 16th minute for a reckless tackle that led to a free kick from outside of the box, but KR came up empty.
In the 21st minute Rikan gave the ball to Vidar, but number 9 skied it over the goal and just minute later, Vidar put the ball into the box to an oncoming Schoenfeld but just missed the target as the Kjartansson family clan of 50 strong continued to cheer him on. Reykjavik’s Sigurjonsson skied the ball over the Maccabi goal in the 29th minute and 3 minutes later Golasa clanged the ball off of the bar as the Yellow & Blue continued to threaten.
Three minutes later Atzily’s low chance just skipped by the right post while Number 7 again featured in the attack as he gave Golasa a beauty of ball that the midfielder riffled over the goal in the 39th minute. One minute later Atzily again was the main man but he couldn’t beat the Reykjavik keeper from in close as the half ended goalless.
Second Half
The Yellow & Blue looked to score a quick goal but Golasa again hit the bar , this time in the 46th minute while Reykjavik’s free kick found the Maccabi wall again just one minute later. Atzily’s 52nd minute chance was saved by a diving KR keeper and in the 54th minute he gave Golasa another amazing pass but number 23 couldn’t get the ball by the Olafsson.
Finally in the 57th minute, Maccabi would break through to take a 1:0 lead as Yeini took the ball in the middle of the pitch after a poor goal kick, passed it to Vidar who sent it to Atzily as the latter slammed it home for his second goal in as many matches. Good teamwork for the one goal advantage.
And what would you know, more positive teamwork would give the Yellow & Blue a 2:0 lead in the 66th minute as Dor Peretz who came on just two minutes earlier tapped the ball behind the Icelandic keeper after a nice passing play by Golasa and Atzily.
Cristian Battocchio made his Maccabi debut as he entered the contest in the 68th minute in favor of an active Golasa. Five minutes later Battocchio gave Schoenfeld a viscous pass up the middle, but the keeper made a terrific save once again to deny a third goal.
Yonatan Cohen replaced Aaron Schoenfeld in the 75th minute as Maccabi cruised the rest of the way to a 2:0 win and a 5:1 aggregate victory over the two legged tie.
