The Yellow & Blue scored three second half goals thanks to Aaron Schoenfeld, Barak Itzhaki and Avi Rikan to take the 3:0 (5:0 aggregate) win over Tirana and advance to the second round of Europa League qualifying. The hosts received a red card late in the first half and left them with ten men for the balance of the contest. Maccabi will host the winner of SJK from Finland and Reykjavik of Iceland next Thursday at the Netanya Stadium.
Head Coach Jordi Cruyff’s Starting XI featured Serbian Predrag Rajikovic in goal with a defensive corps of Eli Dasa, Eitan Tibi, Tal Ben Haim and Ofir Davidzada. Captain Sheran Yeini, Dor Peretz and Eyal Golasa were in the midfield while Omer Atzily, Yonatan Cohen and Aaron Schoenfeld provided the attack.
Available on the each were keeper Daniel Tenenbaum, Yuval Shpungin, Avi Rikan, Vidar Kjartansson, Barak Itzhaki, Egor Filipenka and Shlomi Azulay.
First Half
Golasa got past two Tirana players but the host keeper made the save in the 6th minute while three minutes later Yeini’s sharp angled chance from Atzily’s cross came up short. In the 12th minute Merveil Ndockyt of Tirana threatened Rajikovic’s goal but the keeper made the save. Five minutes later the first yellow card of the match was issued to Davidzada for a reckless tackle.
Atzily dribbled by a number of Tirana players but came up short in the box in the 24th minute while the referee called for a water break one minute later due to the high temperatures in Albania’s capital. Davidzada had a chance of his own in the box but the Tirana keeper made the stop in the 40th minute.
Four minutes later, Yunus Sentamu was shown a red card and was sent off for going into Ben Haim who didn’t have the ball. The linesman saw the action and indicated as such to the referee who left Tirana with 10-men for the rest of the match. Just before the halftime whistle Yeini found Atzily but the latter sent a rocket over the goal as the first 45 minutes came to an end.
Second Half
Tirana and Maccabi traded chances to begin the second half as Ndockyt sent a ball over the Yellow & Blue bar while Atzily did the exact same thing at the other end of the pitch. Finally the deadlock was broken in the 49th minute as Schoenfeld scored off of a terrific pass from the left side via Golasa as the American-Israeli striker slotted home the ball for the 1:0 lead.
Maccabi had a chance to double their lead in the 55th minute but Atzily’s attempt was blocked by the Tirana keeper while in the 62nd minute Cruyff made a pair of substitutions bringing in Avi Rikan and Yuval Shpungin in favor of Cohen and Dasa. Just prior to the personnel changes Atzily sent Cohen a great ball but his tough angled shot hit the post.
The Yellow & Blue continued pouring on the offense as Peretz dribbled into the box but his shot sailed by the post in the 66th minute as Davidzada found Golasa whose header just missed the target one minute later.
However, Itzhaki scored in the 80th minute from in front of the goal to give Maccabi a 2:0 lead while Rikan took an Atzily pass in the 86th minute to put away the second leg 3:0, 5:0 on aggregate.
Next Thursday night Maccabi will host the winner of SJK from Finland or Reykjavik of Iceland.
