Benny Raina wants to get back on the winning track after the painful loss to Maccabi Netanya, but tomorrow (Sunday) Hapoel BS, who is in great shape, will be waiting for her.
Sharon Mimar will miss the Ukrainian midfielder Oleksandr Noyuk who was sent off in the last game as well as Osama Halaila who did not recover from the groin strain.
On the other hand, Shlomi Azoulai is expected to be available at least as a substitute after injuring his groin against Bnei Sakhnin. Another player who will return to the squad is Ahmed Abed who missed six games due to a broken foot and returned to training a week ago. This is a significant boost for Mimer.
The coach has a dilemma regarding the formation in which he will start. In the last two games, he came up with three brakes, but may return to the formation he championed throughout most of his career, 4:3:3.
The star of the team, Richard Boateng will start in midfield alongside Guy Hadida and Issik Northey. It looks like Lui Khilaf’s place is secured up front. Amit Zanti may make his debut in the lineup, while Lazar Jovanovic, whose status has waned, is also in the 11 picture.
Barina want to register another surprise, after beating Maccabi Haifa in Green. The club respects the opponent, but the clear goal is three points.
Mimar admitted this before the game: “Regardless of the recent results, I think that BS is coming into the game at its peak. It has a deep and quality squad of players, from the highest levels we have in the league. I think they are in the best shape in the Israeli league. It will be a much more difficult game than the games we have been used to recently. We will have to reduce the gaps between the teams through a perfect tactical stance, peak commitment. There is no other way to reduce the gaps between the groups. It won’t be easy, in Reina we feel the crowd’s push, I hope as many fans as possible will come to support us tomorrow as well. We feel them every minute of the game. There is no doubt that they can help us get a good result, but the differences in levels are big in favor of BS and we will have to come at a peak readiness level to get something good out of this game.”
Guy Hadida He added: “The loss to Netanya did not lower our confidence, we put on a good performance there. We suffered a bit of bad luck, a bit of naivety we’ll call it. We take the good things from the game. We will confidently come to the next game against BS, as Sharon said we will try to reduce the gaps. Let’s play football. I hope that a crowd like against Sakhnin will come and help us win.”