"Little Dundalk" humiliate Maccabi - Israeli press react to Tallaght defeat

Maccabi Tel Aviv crashed to their second defeat in this season’s Europa League when they were defeated one nil by Dundalk in Tallaght on Thursday night.

The Israeli side, 6 points clear of their domestic league are now bottom of Group D with zero points after two games played.

This is the 21^st game Maccabi have played this season since their Europa League campaign began on the 30^thJune at home to Slovenian side Gorica, it is only their 3^rd defeat and more remarkably last night was the first time this season where they have failed to score a goal

Speaking after the game Maccabi’s Manager Shota Arvaladze, was disappointed and knows his side have much work to do if they have any chance of progressing out of this Europa League Group.

“At the end of the day, the match was fairly even, but Dundalk is a very good and organized club and won the game. I can only congratulate them. It’s disappointing not to take any points in two matches. I’m disappointed because we played very slowly. But I do know that anything is possible and we can play better games going forward, but it won’t be easy.”

Arvaladze also reemphasised his points pre-game that Dundalk are a side who deserve to be at this level.

“I wasn’t surprised by Dundalk. They waited for us and gave us problems on the counterattacks and breaks. We knew we were going to play an organized side. I have to give them credit because they did what they had to do and the match changed in minutes. I’m disappointed because we played very slowly and that’s not our style of play. You have to understand that defeating clubs in the domestic league isn’t good enough in Europe where you have to come with more quality and that’s a challenge that I must solve.”

Maccabi, like Dundalk, have been playing lots of games of late but this is no excuse for the performance of the Israelites on Thursday night in Tallaght.

“We played five games in a small window of time but I’m not using that as an excuse. We prepared properly and the players did what they needed to do and as they were trained. Perhaps it’s a bit of a psychological issue and we came into the match more relaxed after the Derby victory.”

The reaction in the Israeli media wasn’t so sympathetic. The Sport 1 website connected to the Israeli print daily Maariv describes how Maccabi were “humiliated” by “little” Dundalk: “5 days after the 5-0 derby victory Maccabi Tel Aviv came to Dublin and were humiliated by little Dundalk, the substitute Ciaran Kilduff earning Dundalk the first ever victory for an Irish team in the Europa League group stage.”

The website goes on to say that the Dundalk victory was justified but then launched a rather scathing attack on Maccabi.

“Inadequate proration, arrogance, lack of respect for the opponent, perhaps altogether, but the fact remains that Maccabi can say goodbye to the Europa League if they cannot pick up three points in the next game at Alkmaar.

“Since the disgrace against Zenit and following a difficult conversation between the players and Jordi Cruyff, Maccabi have accumulated 9 points in the league, scoring 11 goals and conceding none, during this period Arvaladze regained a lot of respect but now it is wasted, tonight the Georgian took too long to see that his team was ineffective in attack leaving Scarrione and Kjartansson on the field”

Osher Goldfarb writing for the same website quotes anonymous players saying “The preparation was poor and we hardly knew our opponent.”

“Kjartansson and Scarrione lost many balls and even Tal Ben Chaim looked jaded, he is not a robot.”

Goldfarb continues to say that some of the players were also surprised that Arzeledze did not rotate the team sticking with the same attacking trio who beat Hapoel Tel Aviv with Dror Micha, Yossi Benayoun and former Toulouse centre forward Eden Ben Bassat who scored against Northern Ireland in the 2014 WC qualifiers in Windsor Park remaining on the bench.

Omri Afek, capped 27 times by Israel and football analyst on Israel Sport 5 who screened the game live last night, also hinted that the players didn’t know enough about Dundalk again citing individual players who claimed “not to know enough about Dundalk.”

Afek goes on to say “Maccabi failed once again to bridge the gap between domestic league games and European competition” and that “Maccabi lost all physical exchanged to Dundalk, the Irish were fully prepared with a strong defense and played with a lot of enthusiasm”

Afek however praises the Co. Louth side; “Good word to Dundalk, despite low budget has beaten BATE and drawn with Legia, in this game with Maccabi they completely eliminated the threat of Tal Ben Chaim on the wing and Kjratansson”

Following the funeral of former President and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, Maccabi’s flight was delayed and they arrived back into Tel Aviv on Friday afternoon.

Players and staff will have six days off and those not involved in International fixtures will return to training on Thursday.