After seeing Hapoel Beer Sheva drop two precious points in 0: 0 against Hapoel Kiryat Shmona, Maccabi Haifa will be able to increase the gap at the top when it hosts Hapoel Tel Aviv tomorrow (Monday) at 20:30. Just before the game, the team’s coach Barak Bachar and captain Neta Lavi spoke at the press conference.
Even before that, a special guest was observed in the champion’s training complex, when the club’s president, Yaakov Shachar, arrived for training this morning and talked to the players at the team meeting. “It’s not obvious that 30,000 fans will come and not just tomorrow, but in the upcoming games. They should be happy,” he said. In training itself Bachar kept the cards close to his chest and did not practice the vehicle. Even stationary situations that could indicate the composition were not practiced.
Maccabi Haifa coach Barak Bachar He said ahead of the game: “Every game is very difficult, for each team its goals. It is natural that teams lose points, the wisdom for us is to maintain stability. We have not done that in recent games. Hapoel Tel Aviv is an injured animal after the painful loss in the derby. It’s a good team with an audience. “
On Mavis Chibuta, the coach said: “He really wants and trains well, it is not yet reflected in the numbers. I am sure that with Mavis it will be earlier than with Noble Omar, who also took time for him.”
The captain Neta Lavie Referring to the injury he experienced and saying: “Not an easy time. I was at some peak and suddenly I went down to a bad place. I learned a lot from this period and looked sideways at the friends who did a great job, and I also got married during this period. Professionally it was a challenging time, but I’m glad the team is in a good place and with a strong base, and if in the past they said that if Neta does not play it is a problem today I know there is someone to replace me and I am glad the club made the change. I want to put the injury behind me, I get back to business and I feel good. “
On the championship fight he said: “The fight is close and as the coach said we need to look at ourselves. In the last month the results have been a little less good, we need to get back on track and then we will look less at the others and that will help us a lot in the fight. “
On the opponent, Lavi said: “Hapoel had a difficult week for them, losing in the derby at the last minute, and they will surely come to play with a lot of aggression and enthusiasm, we need to lower their enthusiasm, play with a lot of aggression and it will help us win the game.”
Finally, he referred to the large crowd that will fill Sami Ofer in the upcoming games: “It is not something that can be explained in words, it is crazy for us, we are constantly talking about it in the locker room, we want to show them that we justify the trust. There is responsibility, but on the other hand it pushes us. I return to the game against Ashdod, last year before the championship, which was a chill in Sami Ofer. It increases the responsibility but it also pushes us and can help us ”.
