Vladimir Ivic, the Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach addressed regular assembled media ahead of tomorrow night’s Matchday 26 clash against Bnei Yehuda:
“It’s for sure a tough game and we respect our opponent a lot. They spent a lot of time in the second position on the table up until a few weeks ago. They deserve to be in the playoffs and they have quality players.”
Facing Bnei Yehuda in the State Cup as well:
“It’s not a problem to play them twice and that’s what is going to happen. This is now the last game before the beginning of the playoffs and they are a tough and strong team. We need to work hard to win this game as they play quality football and there is a specific system of how they play. I believe it’s a success for them to also be in the Cup semifinal.”
Thinking about the championship?
“No as first we have to play against Bnei Yehuda and then Hadera. You need to give 100% versus every opponent otherwise it will be tough. We want to finish the regular season in the best possible way.”
About Hadera making the playoffs:
“They are a team which will play in the playoffs it’s not an accident. There are many teams with bigger budgets but they finished ahead of them and they deserve to be in the playoffs.”
About the loaned players on Hadera:
“This was our decision to loan players from our squad who didn’t play many minutes. They are in the semifinal of the cup which is good for Hadera as well as the players because they need to play. The team is satisfied with them and that’s good.”
Injury update:
“Nikolic has a difficult injury. He worked the first 10 days but now he has a problem. We are waiting for him to be in good condition so we can use him. He may be available against Hadera but for sure after the break. Golasa has a condition and we need to see and follow what will happen in the next few days. We need to make a decision. We need to take one decision to know if he will be able to play by the end of the season. It’s a problem with his knee. We have to figure out if surgery may be needed.
Keeper status:
“We don’t know yet what will be. Rajkovic is with us and we don’t want to have 2 foreign keepers. Normally like every club we are thinking about the future. Normally we have a foreign keeper but it’s not a necessity.”
