Ido Shahar enjoyed one of his best-ever games for Maccabi Tel Aviv as the 22-year-old scored a goal in the 4-1 Conference League Round of 16 victory away to Olympiacos. From the position of right-back, Shahar, helped Maccabi take a three-goal lead to the return leg and a big step towards a historic qualification to the Quarter Finals of a European competition, said: “Wow. This feeling is difficult to describe. Besides the fact I was on cloud nine I was happy for the team” Shahar said. In the ninth minute, Shahar, doubled Maccabi’s lead at the Georgios Kariaskakis stadium after Eran Zahavi gave Robbie Keane’s side an early lead, tried explaining: “We couldn’t have asked for a better start than this. We spoke about it prior to the game that the start of the game will be extremely important and could decide the contest. It is an amazing feeling to be 2-0 up after 10 minutes. We couldn’t have asked for more.”
On his new role as right-back, Shahar, who normally plays as a midfielder, said: “Last season I played in this role when I was at Apollon Limassol. I love to bring some of the midfielder’s characteristics into the role of a full-back. An extra. If I would have been a standard right-back I would have been forced to bring different characteristics. I am delighted that today it worked really well. When pushing forward I move a bit more towards the middle which is part of the advantages I bring to the plate and that helps the team. The coach spoke with me and spent a lot of time with me on these things.
Osher Davida who hasn’t scored but had an excellent game as a right winger just in front of Shahar, revealed: “Ido and I share a room together and all day we had a feeling that we are going to win. We said that we must score an early goal to ensure that everything starts in our favor. We never expected to be in that position after 9 minutes, it was an amazingly mad feeling. I am delighted Ido was switched to that role, we have such good communication on the pitch as today we spoke non-stop and kept directing each other. We knew that their left-back and the left winger are very dangerous and we dealt with them really well. Ido kept directing me throughout the game and I am just happy it worked that way.”
Davida, who has been enjoying good form recently that saw Keane name him in his starting line-up: “AT our team everything can change within a week. Now things are going well and I am just happy to be part of this – may it continue in the future as well. Our squad is big and deep as we need everyone. This good work is shared by everyone as on Sunday we already have another game to prepare for.”
