Plzen crushes Maccabi Tel Aviv’s hopes
Yellow-and-blue’s dream of reaching group stage almost over following 2-1 home defeat
Maccabi Tel Aviv faced its first real test of the new season on Tuesday night, and it failed miserably.
Despite claiming a 5-1 win over Hibernians of Malta in the second leg of the Champions League second qualifying round last week, the yellow-and-blue had little reason for optimism after struggling for large periods against the semi-professional side before recording a 6-3 victory on aggregate.
New coach Slavisa Jokanovic said he believed his side could register the required improvement ahead of a far tougher challenge against Czech champion Viktoria Plzen in the third qualifying round, but that proved to be no more than wishful thinking on Tuesday. Maccabi was outplayed in a 2-1 defeat to Plzen at Bloomfield Stadium, all but dashing the yellow-and-blue’s dreams of reaching the group stage for yet another season, with a second leg in the Czech Republic still to come next Wednesday. MACCABI TEL AVIV striker Eden Ben-Basat (center) holds his head in disappointment during last night’s 2-1 defeat to Viktoria Plzen in the first leg of the Champions League third qualifying round at Bloomfield Stadium.
“I can’t be pleased because we suffered a very disappointing defeat,” said Jokanovic. “It became very complicated for us after we conceded two cheap goals. We will have to change things for the second leg.”
Jokanovic was critical of his defense and remains hopeful of making further signings ahead of the second leg.
“We made mistakes in the back, but this is the best defense I have at the moment,” the Serbian added. “They didn’t do much to score twice, but at least we scored a very important goal which gives us a chance in the second leg.”
Maccabi is looking to reach the group stage for the second time in club history and the first since the 2004/05 season.
Maccabi got off to a lively start, but the team’s dismal defending was exposed with two goals in five first half minutes, a crushing blow from which the hosts couldn’t come back.
František Rajtoral squared the ball from the right in the 17th minute after easily shaking off the challenge of Tal Ben-Ham, and Aidin Mahmutovic was never going to miss from two meters out. Four minutes later, Václav Procházka’s long ball caught Maccabi’s defense napping and Milan Petržela easily beat goalkeeper Juan Pablo.
The visitors were content on sitting back in the second half and Maccabi looked helpless. However, Eran Zahavi’s splendid through ball in the 79th minute allowed substitute Barak Itzhaki to cut the deficit with a delicate chip, setting up an intense final 10 minutes. Maccabi piled the pressure on Plzen in search of an equalizer, but it was the Czechs who came closest to finding the back of the net, with Jan Kovarik hitting the crossbar in the 90th minute.
Maccabi will need to score at least two goals and win on the road next week to progress to the final playoff round, but looks to have little hope of doing so considering its display against Plzen, which is aiming to reach the group stage for the third time in five years.
The only consolation for Maccabi is the fact it will be handed a berth in the Europa League playoffs should it fail to register an extremely unlikely comeback in the Czech Republic and is knocked out in the third qualifying round for a third straight year.
“We started the match well, but we then conceded two easy goals and our spirits dropped,” said Itzhaki. “Of course we are optimistic. This is only the first half and we can do it. We saw tonight that we are the better team.”