Maccabi Tel Aviv fell to Braga 2-1 in dramatic fashion as the Portuguese hosts scored a pair of late goals to snatch the points in the club’s Europa League opener.

Zarko Lazetic’s squad grabbed a 1-0 lead in the 30th minute via an Osher Davida penalty as Dor Peretz was tripped up in the box by the Braga keeper Matheus Magalhaes handing the yellow-and-blue the spot kick as the half ended with Maccabi Tel Aviv ahead.

The yellow-and-blue continued to remain in control of the matchup and defensively shined with central defender Nemanja Stojic holding down the fort in the back line, however, Brama finally broke through by Portuguese forward Bruma who drew the hosts even in the 88th minute. For Maccabi things went from bad to worse as a Raz Shlomo handball in the box gave Braga a penalty in the 95th minute that Bruma converted while subsequently Gabi Kanichowsky and Tyrese Asante were each booked with red cards as the match mercifully came to an end.

“I see only positive things and well done to my players,” Lazetic began after the devastating defeat. “They certainly did everything right in the first half, we had the ball a lot, in the second half we dropped a bit, the defense was good and there were moments when we had to kill the game, but unfortunately this is football and my players gave everything today.”

As for the pair of red cards, Lazetic didn’t shy away from his team taking responsibility, “It’s our fault, it’s things that stemmed from anger and shouldn’t be done when you have a yellow card.”

The bench boss continued about not taking any points from the clash, “It sounds easy, but that’s football, we tried to do it, we tried to kill the game with good chances, but Braga is an excellent team and this time we were unlucky, but I’m happy with the way we played.”

As for the new system of having a league phase instead of groups, Lazetic commented, “It is good for us, we expect many more games, with many challenges, our problem is that we are not playing in Bloomfield, but we will try to do our best and play like we did in the first half.”

Dor Peretz, who drew the penalty added, “This is football and there is a beauty in which it can surprise. Unfortunately, we experienced the less beautiful side of that in this game, but we are proud of our ability, of what we showed on the field, of sacrifice, of aggressiveness. This is what we wanted to bring to the game and even more than that. Unfortunately, it did not manifest in the result, but we are encouraged.”

Regarding the late and controversial penalty the midfielder added, “It’s marginal, that’s what happened and that’s the fact but can’t change it.”

Finally, Peretz concluded, “I see the good and the compliments that we received and that can be taken from this game, the ability and willingness to control the match for many minutes, on the other hand I don’t like to stay with just the compliments, we would have liked to leave with the points. I too could have finished the game in the 80th minute or so, so I will take responsibility, we will all take responsibility and move on.”