There was plenty of international action for Israel as the Senior team defeated Macedonia 2:1 and the Under-21 squad blasted Greece 4:0.
The Yellow & Blue representatives had a hand in both National Team goals. In the 25th minute Eyal Golasa recorded a gorgeous assist when he lofted the ball over the Macedonian defenders leaving striker Tomer Hemed all alone in front of the host’s goal to score the first Blue & White strike. With two minutes remaining in the half, Ben Chaim pulled the Macedonia keeper out of his goal and as he went to his right, the winger went the other way to score the second goal of the match for his second goal of the campaign.
The home side cut the Israel lead to 2:1 and in the last minute Eitan Tibi was shown a red card for a foul without the ball that led to a penalty. However, the spot kick was heroically saved by Dudu Goresh to preserve the victory and give Israel 3 valuable points as they now prepare to face Liechtenstein on Sunday at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem.
Marko Balbul’s Under-21 squad picked up a solid victory at the Toto Turner Stadium in Beer Sheva against Greece on the second to last Matchday. Dor Peretz who wore the captain’s armband, scored his first goal with the National Team in the 55th minute while Omri Altman picked up a brace and Shoval Gozlan also found the back of the goal for Israel. The young Blue & White will host Albania on Monday evening for a ticket to the playoff round of the Euro 2017 Tournament. However, the Under-21 side will need a win and a better goal differential to have a chance to be one of the top four second place finishers in order to qualify.
Dor Peretz spoke about the match: “We played really well and the game went our way. We played hard and gave it our all and you can see exactly that in the result. On a personal level it feels great to score.”
On the chance of advancing from second place to the playoff round:
“First of all we have to do what we need to and if a win will help us achieve that result then we will be pretty happy. Of course, we will be hoping for the best in regards to the other results.”
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