Maccabi Tel Aviv down Besiktas 3-1 in Europa League action as the yellow-and-blue recorded their first win and points in the competition. Gaby Kanichowsky opened the scoring as he put home an Osher Davida ball in the 23rd minute, but a costly turnover by the midfielder allowed Rafa Silva to draw even at 1-1 a quarter hour later.

However, just before the stroke of halftime, Dor Peretz scored off a Weslley Patati cross to give Zarko Lazetic’s team 2-1 advantage at halftime. A Stav Lemkin handball in the box gave Ciro Immobile a chance to score the equalizer via the penalty spot, but keeper Rui Mishpati came up big and made the timely save to keep the score as is. Patati the pounded home a Dor Turgeman rebound to wrap up the win.

Following the game Besiktas head coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst was relieved of his duties.

“I hope we will see more victories like this, the points are important,” Lazetic said. “But the way we played and how we controlled the ball, we played like a team, step by step and I believe we will produce more games like this. Our task is to stay with our feet on the ground, we have a difficult game against Bnei Reineh on Monday in the Israeli League ad they are a special and experienced team. We don’t have much time to celebrate as we always have to be ready for the next game.”

“A very sad and difficult game,” Besiktas head coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst began. “We didn’t play well in the first half, the momentum was against us and we are very sorry. Of course, we are not playing our best at the moment, it is disappointing for all of us and for me too, I am not performing well. The criticism at the moment is understandable, this is football.”

Gabi Kanichowsky spoke after the huge victory, “A sweet and fun victory. Since we began the competition we had been without a point so this victory is special. We conceded a poor goal, I made a mistake and I’m sorry for that, but we’ve played great so far and hadn’t collected points but we knew they would eventually come. In a time like this, we also represent the country, so this victory had great meaning. I’m happy for our fans who have been through what they’ve been through recently and it gives something special to the people in the country.”