Eran Zahavi had one spectacular first half overhead goal disallowed for offside but had to wait for a late second half penalty to get his name on the scoresheet and put Maccabi in front against Bnei Sakhnin. “I always love to score and help the team” Zahavi said minutes after the side he just captained secured a place in the Toto Cup final with a 2-1 victory at Bloomfield. “We played a good game today as Sakhnin made our lives difficult but I am delighted we managed to score and reach the final. Every title is important for Maccabi and I hope we’d win the final and clinch that title as well.”
Zahavi, whose only goal of the 2024/25 campaign was in the Super Cup ended a four-match goal drought: “We are at the start of the season, there are plenty of rooms for improvement but we didn’t have a full squad from the start of the season, but only in the past few days we began to get the team we would like to see. I am sure we would improve and progress. I am relaxed, as we are in a place were we should be at the start of the season and from here we would improve.”
Zahavi, who this season is competing for a place with two young forwards in Dor Turgeman (20) and Elad Madmon (20) said: “To be honest this is fun, there are two young and very talented players here. There is a good competition for places in the starting line-up. I am here to help them and guide them, obviously not to give up my place in the starting line-up, but I am happy they are playing and getting minutes which allows me to rest whenever needed as well as helps the change of generations at the club. I am happy with every minute that I am on the pitch. I am sure there will be hysteria every time I will not be in the starting line-up but everyone could calm down as this shouldn’t happen. Both myself and the club knew what kind of process we are going as I can help them a lot and I am here for them. But don’t get me wrong I am not giving up my place for nothing as I will fight with them for every second which will make them better and better prepared. I am happy to be here and help every player at the club. So everyone should calm down as all is cool.”
On Maccabi Haifa that will face Maccabi in the Toto Cup final, Zahavi said: “Both teams are experiencing complex summers. It is challenging in terms of adding players. I know this is very tough as maybe in normal days players would have come, so maybe it harms us but we are not going to moan about it. We will have to deal with it, there are good enough Israeli players and also great foreign players who are already here. I think that the players who arrived are excellent players and if there will be another chance more would come.”
