Eran Zahavi, scored the first hattrick of the 2023/24 season, took the match-ball as a souvenir summed up the victory at Turner stadium: “The most important thing is that we played well today and looked good as a team. We did a lot of things we worked on over the past month. We would like to continue making progress. The result was high, but we will not leave here with our noses in the air. This game is now over and we will turn our focus to next week’s match”.
With the team now qualified to the Semi Final of the Toto Cup, Zahavi added: “We don’t underestimate the Toto Cup, Europe or any competition we participate in. We would like to win every match and are as serious and don’t take lightly matches that we lose. We are unhappy with the goal we conceded today and the coach made us hear that and rightly so. This is a team effort and we will work on these things.”
The emphatic victory at the home of the team which finished one place above Maccabi in the table, didn’t see Zahavi go over the top as he said: “I will not be throwing cliches in the air. Every season Maccabi doesn’t win a championship is a tragedy. This is how it works for us. The way is just as important to us and this is why we will focus on it on a game by game basis. This is exactly how we intend to progress. I can though congratulate Daniel Peretz for playing his 100th match for Maccabi today – what a way to celebrate such a landmark”.
When asked about his new coach Robbie Keane, Maccabi’s veteran marksman concluded: “There is a different energy in the camp and the demands are different. Every coach who arrives demands different things. I really enjoyed the game but especially the fact we did things we worked on in training. At the end of the day the one thing that matters are results and this is what we will be judged on.”
