Maccabi Tel Aviv played their third friendly of the preseason and their first of the current training camp at Mierlo, Holland against Royale Union Saint-Gilloise from Belgium’s second division.
For Vladmir Ivic, this was a chance to see his deep squad in action ahead of the Yellow & Blue’s first official match of the 2019/20 season against Bnei Yehuda in the Champions Cup in just 11 days.
First Half
Maccabi playing in their checkered kits began the contest in control as they looked for a goal early on. However, in the 12’ it was Union who scored first thanks to a strike by Nils Bouekou who came in off the right side, made his way by a pair of defenders and out the ball into the goal from in close.
Three minutes later, Gianniotis made the save off an 18 meter free kick while Maccabi then had a number of chances to get on the board by Eden Kartsev and Dor Micha but they couldn’t find the equalizer.
Ivic’s side continued too search for a marker but in the 43’ union doubled their lead via Mohamed Camara who scored from inside the box just ahead of the break.
Second Half
Maccabi made a number of substitutes as Tenenbaum came on for Gianniotis as Maor Kandil, Dor Peretz and Sheran Yeini all entered the match in favor of Noam Cohen, Kartzev and Jair Amador.
The Yellow & Blue once again controlled the pace of play and had a chance to draw even early on in the second half but came up short. In the 63’ Ivic brought on Yonatan Cohen, Avi Rikan, Aaron Schoenfeld and Chico Ofoedu for Micha, Itay Shechter, Matan Hozez and Eylon Almog.
Maccabi had a number of attempts as the match came to an end with Union taking the 2:0 win. On Thursday, Ivic’s squad will face the Belgium champions Genk at 19:00.
