When Barak Itzhaki was asked if his team, Beitar Jerusalem was indeed in a crisis as it readies to welcome Bnei Yehuda to Teddy Stadium for an Israel State Cup quarterfinal clash on Wednesday at 7pm, he brushed off the notion as quickly as possible and rightfully so.

Crisis is definitely not the way to describe the yellow-and-black situation after having drawn two matches in a row and have not lost since they welcomed Hapoel Beer Sheva to Teddy Stadium way, way back at the beginning of November.

Sure, drawing the pair of contests, on the road at Ashdod and at home against Hapoel Haifa dropped Itzhaki’s team out of first place but they have been playing superb football for what has been months already collecting points while also featuring in first place for a couple of weeks.

“I think the word ‘crisis’ shouldn’t even come up,” Itzhaki said as his prematch media availability. “If you look at the streak we were on so far and then talk after two draws, where against Ashdod you could say we deserved to win and against Hapoel Haifa for 60 or 70 minutes there was only one team on the pitch, then talking about a crisis because of two such results is out of place. We’ll focus on working hard. We’ll do our job and let people talk around us. Wednesday we have a match with no way back. We’ll field the strongest lineup that I believe suits this match.”

Itzahaki, who is usually levelheaded was a bit thrown off by the question, but he also realized that he is receiving these queries because Beitar Jerusalem is challenging for the league title if he likes it or not and any loss of points no matter what had gone on in the game itself is going to be scrutinized.

“I understand there are expectations because we’ve put ourselves in a position where people expect things from us,” Itzahki stated. “Something I didn’t like in the match against Hapoel Haifa was that in the final minutes. Maybe it was due to pressure and I take responsibility as we need to fix it, but we stopped playing our game.

“Our pressing, in particular, wasn’t good and it’s possible we felt too comfortable at 2-0. These are things a team that wants to be at the top can’t afford to do, lose a lead like that and drop intensity. We need to know how to kill games off and win matches like these.”

The bench boss added, “I think the first goal we conceded against Hapoel Haifa threw us a bit off balance and we lost the game. On the other hand, we also weren’t intense enough, especially toward the end. Because of that and because we didn’t press aggressively the way we usually do, they had more space and were able to create chances even in the final 20 minutes.”

But right now it’s time to put aside the league and not look ahead to two monster matches at Hapoel Beer Sheva and then at home against a reinvigorated Maccabi Tel Aviv and turn our attention over to Bnei Yehuda, the Leumit League team that has aspirations of moving back up to the top league ASAP.

Bnei Yehuda has won a pair of Cups in the past decade and had spent years in the Premier League where they were a regular in European qualifying play and were constantly one of the biggest threats to some of the top teams year in and year out.

Beitar owner Barak Abramov along with the club’s CEO Kfir Edri spent a number of years with Bnei Yehida with the former being one of its previous owners and the latter having been one of their most important players over the years.

“Right now, we’re focused on the Cup and what we’re going to do in the match against Bnei Yehuda,” Itzhaki said. “They play very aggressive football and they are a challenging team. We need to be focused in order to get by them. Even though Bnei Yehuda are in the second division, they’re still a club with a lot of tradition, especially in the Cup over the last decade. It’s a single-match knockout and we’re taking it seriously, because we’re up against a well-organized, well-coached team that was built to earn promotion. There’s no way back from this game. I will field the strongest lineup I believe is best suited for this match.”

Looking too far ahead isn’t something that Itzhaki is interested in doing, “Right now, we’re looking only at the match to reach the State Cup semifinals. My focus and the players’ focus are solely on that. That’s all we’re thinking about, if we look too far ahead, we’ll crash. The match against Bnei Yehuda needs to end successfully, with us advancing to the Cup semifinals. It’s a very prestigious competition. We need to stay humble, look every opponent in the eye and respect everyone, but believe that we can beat anyone.”

One of the most important players at Beitar, Omer Atzily is still out of action with an injury and he won’t be available for the Cup contest which is no doubt a loss to the team as they have not had his services for the last two matches, both draws.

“He’s not fit and he’s not training with the team. When he’s ready, he’ll play. He’s a player with character that we really miss and others will need to step up and fill his place. I don’t know what will happen with him against Be’er Sheva; I hope he returns as soon as possible.”

One of the players that will be available for Itzhaki is Johnbosco Kalu who had 5 goals in the first 11 matchdays for Beitar, however, since a brace against Maccabi Netanya at the end of November, the striker hasn’t been able to find the back of the goal. In his past seven contests that he has featured in, Kalu has come up empty and he was also out injured for matchdays 17 and 18.

Should Beitar want to chellange for both the league and the state cup, the Nigerian marksman needs to begin scoring as his club needs the goals not just the work he puts in inside of the box.
“In football there are ups and downs. I work hard every day, put the games that are already over behind me and focus on the next match. The most important thing is that the entire team works together, no matter who plays and who doesn’t. Our goal is to keep winning and improving and it’s a good thing that there’s competition among everyone.”

Kalu continued, “The most important thing is to focus on each match on its own. There’s no need for special preparation. We prepare for every game individually. I don’t know anything about Bnei Yehuda, but every match is important. We respect them and don’t look at their position. We just and want to play our football and get back to our winning ways.”