Maccabi boss says side can still deliver a Champions League surprise
Andrew Sherwood is the Jewish News Sport and Community Editor
Maccabi Tel Aviv manager Slaviša Jokanović believes his side can still surprise teams in this season’s Champions League – despite seeing them suffer their second consecutive loss at home to Dynamo Kiev on Tuesday night.
Goals in each half from Andriy Yarmolenko and Júnior Moraes saw the Israeli champions beaten 2-0, and coming on the back of a 4-0 loss against Chelsea, they now sit bottom of Group G.
However, believing his side are improving with every game, Jokanović said: “We deserve to be here. We’re all upset with the result, Eran Zahavi scored a goal that was offside and it was small detail, but we all depend on those small details. I’m very happy that my team is here and we have four more games and 12 points left. If we score or if we don’t score we have to be proud to be here after 11 years. With a bit more power we could be doing an even better job. This is not the end of the campaign and we can still surprise some people just as other teams did so today in other matches.”
Defender Eitan Tibi said the players were more upset with this loss, than the one at Stamford Bridge, saying: “There’s a reason [for that] because we were better today and could have gotten a better result than the way it ended. We had some good chances and in Europe it’s hard to get these chances, it’s very challenging for us to score in these types of competitions.
“There were times when we controlled the match and we had much more ball movement than them. There was a difference in level of play in this game compared to the one against Chelsea, we gave up two goals but will continue to get better as the matches go by.”
The Israelis next face FC Porto in Portugal on 20 October.
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