Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Sporting Director Jordi Cruyff summed up the the first match for the Yellow-and-Blue in the Champions League after falling to Chelsea 4:0. at Stamford Bridge. Cruyff isn’t disappointed with the result and doesn’t believe it will effect the team morale as they face Hapoel Raanana in Israeli league play.

 

Disappointed:

“I’m not sure. I don’t take it that way, there’s a difference in the level. I may be disappointed as to the way we gave up some of the goals and try not give up a goal from a free kick. It’s been many years since we had an opponent at this level and I hope we can learn from it.”

We’re some of the players not up to their usual standards of play:

“Maybe. The opponent also has an influence on the result at this level. When you give half a meter you’re going to be too late. They have very fast and athletic players and we haven’t had to compete at this level for a long time. I’m not pessimistic for the following matches. The most important thing is to show character and strength in the league for the next  game and in the local league. Hopefully we can learn from this for the next European game, the level here is obvious.”

The new ‘keeper Rajkovic made a crucial mistake:

“I haven’t seen the replay on TV and in all honesty we lost 4:0 and I’ve seen a lot of mistakes today. I don’t think we should pick out just one mistake. We’re not going to win the Champions League and we had two 19-year olds on the pitch and we are trying to gain valuable experience.”

How would you judge some of the players:

“Some players reached a good level and showed that they could compete physically and I saw a number of good things. We played here against the English Premier League champion and we shouldn’t lose what the reality is and keep our eyes open as to the team’s we are playing.”

Will the match effect their play in the league:

“I hope not and I expect not as the players have shown a lot of character over the past few years. But I expect the team to come back in strong way. This should not effect us because this is the big boys competition.”

How would sum up the total experience against Chelsea:

“I think it’s not a happy welcome but they showed us what the Champions League is all about and it’s up to us to learn from it and try to learn for the next games. We have to take this well and not say that this was a disaster. Realistically it may be much easier to compete in the Europa League but the fact is we wanted to test ourselves at the highest levels which means we will play better opponents.

Chelsea have an amazing squad and an amazing coach. They also played at home with a point to prove and had to get the bad feeling from the league out of their system and we were a good candidate for them.”

Are you looking forward for the next Champions League match against Dynamo Kyiv:

“Right now I’m looking forward to Raanana on the weekend and this is where we have to compete. The priority for the club now that we are playing in the Champions League is number one with no doubt to compete for the league.”

How is owner Mitch Goldhar after this experience:

“I think he’s ok and I don’t see disappointment in him. At Maccabi we are trying to be realistic.”