Barak Bachar gave and Barak Bachar took, and what did the poet mean? On the lawn he started at 4-3-3 and suddenly, out of nowhere, decided to move to 3-5-2 and made a fuss and confusion within the lineup of the Greens. This refers to three conversions to players who are not used to playing in those places that are not suitable for them. The first was Noble Omar who played behind the striker, the second is Daniel Sundgren who moved to play right brake and the third is Dolev Haziza who from the far left side moved to play on the right side near the Maccabi Haifa bench.
As a result – chaos. For five minutes, Maccabi Haifa did not find its hands and feet. The Greeks’ goal came as a result of confusion – confusion in the middle of the pitch and confusion in the guard. Finally, Pierre Corno sent a ball out of the box and instead of kicking it out of the field, he created a kicking situation for the Danish striker who came in front of an empty net and scored the 1-0, which is not suitable for a team like Maccabi Haifa to absorb. Five defensive players and no one on the rebound on the beam – another default.
And what happened after the goal? Bachar returned to 4-3-3. It was too much for ten minutes of play, but when you put Frenzy Piero in the central striker position and you have Nikita Rokavica with him, things look different. Suddenly there are two strikers in front of two brakes and then you put Sundgren back to the brake and let the firecracker and Korno be free. What happens then? Corno reaches a state of one hundred percent goal and misses and bounces, which is an offensive right-back, on the other hand makes a goal in reverse. This is how you let players play in positions they are used to.
We learned about a firecracker that he can play anywhere on the field at any given moment and he was great once Barak made the substitution. Until then, Haziza was furry and Corno was weak defensively. On the other hand, when there were three players behind him – he played higher and was more offensive.
If you approach the game, there is no doubt that the Greek coach came to Sami Ofer to study Maccabi Haifa closely. In the first thirty minutes he understood exactly what he needed to do against her and gave an instruction not to move the ball in front of the Greens: ‘Haifa will press, you will only play with long balls’. And so it was – they did not try to move a ball from behind, when they moved the ball only in the part of Haifa. Neta Lavie was neither here nor there, but as soon as the champion understood the principle she shrank backwards and was compact. As a result, Maccabi Haifa went forward with the face and scored two excellent goals that were a pity that were disqualified. If there was a VAR, at least Dean David’s goal would have been counted.
In the second half Piero did an unusual job and just mouthed all sorts of ‘keyboard brats’ getting dirty from here to Haiti. Despite missing out on a slump, the new acquisition striker made an unusual move for Chiron Cherry, was a teammate, got into situations, kicked a crossbar and did everything a central striker should – when it all happened as a result of Rokavica being next to him. If we go back to the game against Hapoel Beer Sheva, he was lonely up there and it was very difficult for him there.
Piero forced the Greek coach to react and put in another brake and thus change the lineup of Olympiacos. Martinez changed when he realized that his two brakes could not get along with the striker from Haiti and Rokavica, and indeed the brake that came in prevented a goal after moving a ball that San Menachem put in between two defensive players.
By and large Maccabi Haifa came to win, it was better than Olympiacos. The Greens brought pride to the city of Haifa and did not give up the game for a moment. Bogdan Planic was excellent, Sherry was great, Ali Muhammad very good, and firecracker? We have already said. Maccabi Haifa still has a lot of work to do, but it is impossible to close the gap on it since it will also be dangerous in Piraeus.
Maccabi Haifa is able to do the job there as well and it should be remembered that last year Ludogorets ousted Olympiacos on penalties. I know that Barak Bachar does not like to practice on penalties, but here there is no choice. The Maccabi Haifa coach will have to work with his team on kicks from the penalty spot – he has recently lost two competitions for that and if Bachar wants to pass a stage, penalties may be the key this time as well.
