Maccabi suffered their fourth defeat in the Europa League phase going losing 5-0 to Ajax at the Johan Cruyff Arena. Dor Peretz who captained Maccabi on the night spoke at the end of the match: “We played against a very very good opponent. We wanted to get something out of here in terms of a result but sadly we didn’t” Peretz said. “We have only things to learn from a team of this calibre and we must continue moving forward.”
On the heavy defeat, Peretz continued: “Bigger teams than us suffer similar defeats out here, and while we are not feeling comfortable with such results, this was an opponent of the highest standard.”
As attention will now turn to Sunday’s league match away to Bnei Sakhnin, Peretz said: “We have the league which is our bread and butter and we must come well prepared.”
On Maccabi’s fourth defeat of the group phase, Peretz summed up: “We have still a long way to go. We are still far behind, especially if we see how well we managed to cope in the first two matches. We played well enough to deserve points but didn’t do it. We will continue learning from teams of this calibre and from the way they play. If we manage to do those things and play at such an intensity we will go a long way.”
Ahead of Sunday’s league match at Sakhnin, Peretz said: “We will have to recover quickly both physically and mentally as Sakhnin awaits on Sunday which is the most important task right now”.
