It’s the height of Hanukka and Christmas Eve and tonight at 20:15 Bnei Yehuda will host Maccabi Tel Aviv in the 15th round of the TASE Premier League at Bloomfield. The away team will try to add another fixture to the wins column and three vital points after two consecutive league draws and a shock defeat in the State Cup.
Coach Vladimir Ivic will want to ensure an end to the brief rut and as league leaders, Maccabi will try to ensure they keep the gap from their nearest rivals, Maccabi Haifa, to at least three points. 
Maccabi are on 34 points after 14 matches while at the other end of the pitch, Bnei Yehuda are in eighth place in the standings with 18 points. Coach Yossi Abuksis’s charges are winless in three consecutive league matches and have lost their last two, to Hapoel Haifa and Kiryat Shmona.
It’s the second league meeting between the two clubs this season and the previous encounter, which was Maccabi’s first home match at the new Bloomfield, ended in a goalless draw. The two adversaries also met in the first clash of the season, July’s one-off Champion of Champions trophy between last season’s league and cup winners and Maccabi emerged as 1-0 winners. 
Speaking to reporters ahead of the match, coach Vladimir Ivic said: “We are fully aware of the club we represent and we must ensure that our future results will be good. We will need to work hard and rely on our fans’ support, I’m sure they will be with us. We all have the same ultimate goal and we can succeed if we will be together.”
Midfielder Avi Rikan, who also spoke to the media in the pre-match news conference added: “This is a league fixture and the last competition we are involved in this season, so of course we want to get back on the winning path. We have the chance to redress the balance after Saturday’s defeat and we need to be ready for the occasion. Bnei Yehuda are a club that have made things difficult for us in the past so we will have to be at our best. The only way to recover is to win and put the bad period behind us. We want to turn a new page with a win.”
