Omer Atzily returned to the pitch for Maccabi Tel Aviv and scored a first half penalty for the Yellow & Blue against his former club, Beitar Jerusalem. Number 7 looked back at the contest ad focused on the importance of getting into the Europa League qualifiers:

“First off I really missed being on the pitch and I waited a long time to return as I was out for five months. I felt good, but it means nothing as we lost our 4th match in a row and we have to get ready for the next match and be positive.”

4th place and the European spot:
“We’ve been thinking about it for sure as it’s only a 3 points gap. I think we have to take how we played in the second half into the match against Bnei Yehuda because that is a must win game. We have to understand that there’s no way back and that we can’t even think about losing the European spot. We have to do it and I believe we will.”

Confidence:
“We came into the playoffs with confidence and then one thing led to another and it snowballed. You can see that in the big games throughout the season we took the points and it’s disappointing but that’s what there is right now.”

Mental factor:
“It happens and we have to work on that and I hope that it will change by the end of the season.”

Going from fighting for the championship to fighting for a place in Europe:
“It’s strange for all of us but right now there’s no choice, if we don’t make it into Europe it will be a huge disappointment for everyone at the club.”

Returning to the pitch:
“I wanted to get back to playing so badly. It was good to be back at Teddy after a long time and there was a good atmosphere for the match.”

The effect of Jordi Cruyff leaving at the end of the season:
“We knew about it before the media and then we began the playoffs on the wrong foot and things just went from there. One loss and another. We have to lift ourselves and do everything to get into Europe.”