Maccabi hosts fourth placed Hapoel Jerusalem on MD33 of the ONE ZERO League as shortly before the encounter at Bloomfield (20:00) Eyal Golasa faced the media and spoke ahead of the match.
On Jerusalem, which suffered only a single defeat in their last four matches of the Playoff of which they beat Ashdod, Maccabi Netanya and Maccabi Haifa before suffering a 2-1 defeat to Hapoel Be’ersheva last week, Eyal Golasa said: “They are a side which plays very good football and one can see that in every game they play. We prepare for them accordingly and know it will not be an easy task. We played them in the last month and we will come to do everything we can in order to take all three points. We know what we need to improve in our game and know how we are supposed to play against them. Hopefully, we will manage to do so.”
Despite Maccabi maintaining an unbeaten record in the Playoffs, failure to record a victory in the last two matches led Golasa to say: “This is not the results we wished to have ahead of this game but we are putting this aside, working hard in training and know we have an extremely tough match on Saturday.”
When asked about the lack of goals from players other than Eran Zahavi (19) and Djordje Jovanovic (15), Golasa, who scored 3 league goals just like Enric Saborit, Parfait Guiagon and Gabi Kanichowsky, replied: “In my eyes it is a combination of things. We are working on this in training, finishing in front of goal and other things which could help us at matches and I hope that it could be seen on the pitch. We are feeling relaxed, with no pressure and working well, preparing properly with a good vibe so it should be seen.”
In his 7th season at Maccabi, the 31-year-old midfielder who made 23 league appearances this season and 30 in all competitions, added: “I am a player who is used to play in almost every match, but this is the reality at Maccabi – we have an excellent squad of players and one has to live with that. My role is to work hard and to be always be ready when called upon.”
Golasa, whose contract runs out in the summer and was asked about his future, dismissed any claims that the matter is concerning him: “I wouldn’t like to talk about next season as it is irrelevant. I would like to play for as many games as possible, to prove myself and help the team. We will do a summary at the end of the season and see what happens next.”
