Maccabi Tel Aviv cruised to a 4-1 win over Celje in first leg playoff round UEFA Conference League action as the yellow-and-blue will head to Slovenia next week to seal the deal and advance to the groups stages of the continental competition. Eran Zahavi scored a hat-trick and Dor Turgeman added the final tally to take the victory which moves head coach Robbie Keane’e side that much closer to returning to the European league after a one year absence.

However, one player that will not be making the trip for the 2nd leg is goalkeeper Daniel Peretz who has been sold to Bayern Munich pending a physical on Friday. In his stead, Daniel Tenenbaum returns to the club that he helped lead to the 2019/20 league championship.

“You don’t want to lose one of your best players,” Keane said about Peretz. “He is one of the best young players in israel but as a club you have to adapt. It’s an opportunity for him to go to huge club like Bayern Munich and my good friend Harry Kane will look after him.”

“As for the game it could be easier if we kept things simple but how can I complain as we won 4-1. It’s always going to be difficult and we have to be careful because they are a very good team. We took our chances and we could have been cleaner.”

Eran Zahavi also spoke about Peretz heading to Bayern, “We want to wish Daniel the best and he deserves this. Unfortunately, it will be hard to bring in someone for Daniel as he is a spacial person but this will be good for Maccabi’s future in selling players to top teams. Many young players want to go to such a team and he will represent everyone with honor.”