Maccabi Tel Aviv ended their 2017/18 Europa League campaign on a high note defeating Spanish side Villarreal 1:0 on a goal by Nick Blackman. Head Coach Jordi Cruyff summed up this season’s Europa League Group Stages:
Thoughts on taking 4 points from the strongest club in the group:
“I never imagined that we would take 4 points from Villarreal. Sometimes what you think will happen just doesn’t. We’re happy and this will help our confidence. The team looked better. This was a disappointing group stage for us but we gained confidence going into the matches that are ahead of us.”
About the match:
“Both clubs played with different lineups than usual and if I was a Villareal fan I’d be happy to know that there are many young talented players that featured today. When you save players, sometimes you may end up losing. In any case, I can say that whatever happened here today is already in the past and we have to already think about the next game.”
Potentially coaching in Spain:
“I haven’t thought about it and I concentrated on this match. It was great to play here as it’s my home and I speak the language. It was important for us as a team to look good and gain confidence. We gave up too many goals this campaign but we were better today. Like I said we are already looking ahead to the next match.”
Maccabi’s performances in Europe:
“We played 4 times in Europe the past number of years and I believe that the project was a success. We wanted to be more competitive this season and battle for second place in the group, it didn’t happen and perhaps we just weren’t fresh enough and we had injuries, but now it’s not really important. Our goal was to advance and that will be our goal in the years to come.”
