Maccabi Haifa captain Neta Lavi was all smiles at Ben Gurion airport on Wednesday afternoon as his Green side overcame Red Star Belgrade when they were in a 2-0 deficit situation to draw 2-2 and win the UEFA Champions League Playoff Round tie 5-4.

For the Carmel Mountain squad this will be the third time in the prestigious competition with the last time coming over a decade ago during the 2009/20 season.

Lavi was feted to a hero’s welcome by well over a thousand Haifa fans who arrived at the airport to greet the team from all over the country to cheer the team and sing to their hearts delight.

“I’m super excited,” Lavi began. “It’s something we have not yet comprehended, all of us. I think it will take some time to understand what has occurred. We had a great journey in this qualifying campaign and from the first few games until now, we did it as a family. This is a very happy moment for all of us.”

“We are a very big family and we don’t have one player who tries to be above the team. Everyone is focused on their own job. You are asking what a captain does and I came to the conclusion that I need to have all of the mental traits. I need to let everyone do their own thing and we have lots of players who are able to do just that.”

Lavi had been out of action for almost the entire season last year but came in ready to go this campaign in order to help the team reach its goal, “I have had ups and downs before I got injured and didn’t play for a long period of time. This season I started really well and I had an excellent preseason. I am really happy that I was able to help the team reach the heights we have achieved.”

The midfielder’s family was crucial in his comeback as well, “They supported me a lot. They are the closest people to my heart. They supported me in the hard times and are now happy that things are going well.”

As for the fact that each of the five Israeli teams that has featured in the Champions League were unable to win the domestic league, Lavi wasn’t interested in hearing much about it, “Someone told me about that before, so that is another myth we will have to overcome this season.”

Lavi and Haifa have an Israeli league game coming up on Saturday night against Maccabi Netanya and while head coach Barak Bachar wants to come into the contest in the best possible shape, that may be a challenge, “I already forgot what happened in our dressing room. Crazy emotions, everyone was happy. We didn’t sleep all night. Like Barak said, we have a game on Saturday and we have to worry about that a bit.”

With the group stage draw slated for Thursday night, Lavi some about one team that he would really like to face, “I really like Man. City. I think Pep Guardiola is very good and I like him a lot. It’s a tough game and I don’t know what would happen.”

The bottom line for Lavi is that a lot of credit has to go to the fans both those who travelled to Serbia and the ones that were here in Israel, “Crazy crazy. I think what’s happening all over the country around the team is crazy. I want to thank our fans who put on a great performance in both games, both at Sammy Ofer and also in Belgrade. We heard the supporters throughout the entire game. Players from all of the teams congratulated us.”