Maccabi Tel Aviv return to league action on Monday (20:15) on the back of the 5-0 Conference League victory over HJK in Helsinki as they host Ashdod SC on MD7 at Bloomfield. Today (Sunday) Maccabi’s coach Patrik van Leeuwen and central defender Idan Nachmias spoke at the pre-match Press Conference.
“As soon as we landed in Israel we focused on the next game” Van Leeuwen said before relating to the opponent, “They are a team that wants to play football and showed it in the past against us. This is something we must pay attention to and ensure that we start the game from the first minute with the right tempo and motivation”.
Nachmias, who was an unused substitute on Thursday, related first to the feelings after the victory in Finland: “We had a good game in Europe and would like to continue the form by doing more and talking less. Everyone is hoping that we will ride a positive wave now after the performance we had away from home, which is not a result that should be taken for granted. Everyone would like to embrace it and use it to push forward”.
The central defender who joined Maccabi in the summer, added: “Ashdod is a side that likes to initiate and move the ball around. They are a quality side. We played a friendly game against them not that long ago an one could see that their results so far this season do not reflect on their real ability. We are preparing very hard for this game”.
The 24-year-old who scored twice this season at Bloomfield, summed up: “I am certain the fans will turn up and would like to see attacking, free flowing, positive, happy football like Maccabi Tel Aviv should be playing and hopefully this is what we will do”.
