Maccabi Haifa remained winless in UEFA Champions League play after falling to Juventus 3-1 as Adrien Rabiot scored a brace and Angel Di Maria assisted on all three markers for the hosts in Turin. The Greens, who were playing with a number of changes to their lineup due to the majority of Jewish Israeli players having fasted while observing the Yom Kippur Holiday, tried to keep up with the Italian side and did an admirable job until conceding in the 35th minute to French midfielder Rabiot.

Massimiliano Allegri’s squad doubled the advantage early on in the second half when Di Maria sent Dusan Vlahovic a tremendous ball that the Serbian striker easily beat Haifa keeper Josh Cohen in the 50th minute. Greens bench box Barak Bachar made wholesale changes brining on a trio of Israelis in Dean David, Omer Atzily and Dolev Haziza and was immediately rewarded when David latched onto a Tjaron Chery through ball and beat Polish keeper Wojciech Tomasz Szczęsny to cut the lead to 2-1.

However, as Haifa pressed hard for the equalizer, Rabiot headed home a pinpoint perfect Di Maria corner to go ahead 3-1 and seal the Greens fate. The two sides will face each other once again next Tuesday evening at Sammy Ofer Stadium as Haifa will look to record their first points of the competition.

“This was a game that had many things going on in it and momentum swings,” Bachar said after the game. “If I can take the positives from this game is that when the game was 2-1 we tried to really comeback. But on the other hand we were exposed and we deserved to concede those 3 goals.”

Haifa goal scorer Dean David “The feeling was amazing the instant that the ball went into the goal. This was a very special goal and am I happy that the ball went in. It gave us some momentum and we tried everything to get a good result.”

The Man of the Match Angel Di Maria also reflected on the game, “We knew that Maccabi Haifa was dangerous and they played very well against PSG. They have some very good players and we had to be very careful with their counterattacks.”