Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated Maccabi Petach Tikva 2-0 in the traditional Super Cup season opener as the 2024/25 Israel soccer campaign started on the right foot for the yellow-and-blue. Eran Zahavi found the back of the goal in the first half while Matan Hozez added a late insurance marker in the second to close out the victory and celebrate the first title of the young season.

The Super Cup was not only the first title awarded this year but by taking the victory Maccabi Tel Aviv advanced to the Toto Cup semifinals ahead of their first European test next week.

The yellow-and-blue will begin their continental campaign in the second round of UEFA Champions League qualifying next week where they will most probably face Fotbal Club FCSB from Bucharest, Romania who have a 7-1 lead on aggregate against Virtus from San Marino. Maccabi Petach Tikva will also begin their European journey when they face Portuguese side Braga in Europa League qualifying next week as well.

“First, I would like to congratulate everyone – players, staff, management, to say thank you for the great support,” Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach Marko Lazeric began. “For sure, we’re now almost three weeks together. We won the trophy, but normally we’re just beginning and this is good for our courage, to believe in what we do. For the first thirty minutes we were good – with, without the ball, lots of confidence, good decisions. After that, we played down and for sure we need to improve a lot of things.”

“Second half we were ok,” Lazeric continued. “A lot of transition, running – it’s too much. I’d like to have more control of the ball. We’re beginning, this is more than I expected for the first match. This is one trophy and one good week for us. We have one day of rest, another match for our players who didn’t play today, one day of recovery. Then we have 5-6 days to prepare for the next game.”

The bench boss also looked ahead to the club’s Champions League qualifer, “Physically, maybe we won’t be 100%. But who is not ready mentally is not doing their job. Everyone wants the opportunity to play a Champions League game. For sure our fans will miss it, but the situation is how it is. That will be one more reason to be 100% prepared mentally. That’s necessary if we want to win.” 

“We knew it was going to be a very tough game, especially due to the physicality,” Petach Tikva head coach Dan Roman said. “We showed some character but we will need to look back at the game and see what we need to improve. It’s clear that this team needs to be strengthened and as we have the Europa League qualifier coming up against Braga we will do our best to put on the best show that we can.”

Defender Raz Shlomo summed up Maccabi’s first game of the young season, “It was very hot and we know how difficult it is to play in this heat at this time of year. But at Maccabi we want to win all trophies and I’m happy that we won the first trophy. In football, you can find yourself with a new coach any day. Like every staff, they have their demands. We’re together now for three weeks and I think it’s going well, I believe you saw that today.” 

“For the upcoming season, I need to improve,: Shlomo added. “The coach said that he wants to improve each player individually. I hope that I’ll improve from last season because when you get an opportunity with Maccabi you need to take it. I hope that from this game and practice this will give the coach more reasons to trust me.”

Luka Stor reflected on the loss and looked ahead to his side’s match against Braga, “We have to work on a lot of things and we didn’t know what to except in this game. We will need some time to get it. We weren’t good on the the ball and we need more possession as well as tactics. We have some time to get ready for the Europa League and the preparation will be different against Braga as they usually play in Europe, but we will fight for a result.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv came out of the gates on fire as Eran Zahavi had a quality chance in front of the goal while Dan Bitton tried his luck from the outside but came up empty, however, in the 15th minute the yellow-and-blue would finally break the ice. Zahavi latched onto a Gaby Kanichowsky ball and scored into the far left corner to give Zarko Lazetic’s squad a 1-0 lead.

An active Zahavi slammed the ball over the bar less than ten minutes later, while Petach Tikva’s Luka Stor had an opportunity to even up the contest but came up short ahead of the break as the yellow-and-blue head into halftime holding a 1-0 advantage.

Maccabi picked up the pace to begin the second half as Dor Peretz missed an open goal and Matan Hozez back from loan also came up empty right in front of the net. After coming on as a substitute, Avishay Cohen raced into the box but Petach Tikva keeper Marco Wolff came up big but a busy Hozez put the icing on the cake with an injury time goal to wrap-up the victory and hoist the first trophy of the season.