The Israel National Soccer Team takes on Iceland in European Championship Playoff action on Thursday (21:45 Israel time) in Hungary as they look to punch their ticket to the final where they will play the winner of the Ukraine and Bosnia and Herzegovina the following week. Should the blue-and-white win the final they will be one of the final three teams that will play in this summer’s Euros being held in Germany.

Head Coach Alon Hazan spoke in depth about a myriad of topics before heading to their home away rom home in Hungary while Gaby Kanichowsky discussed the upcoming game from Budapest.

“When you represent the national team, you find the energy, despite a long and difficult season,” the Maccabi Tel Aviv midfielder began. It’s the childhood dream of everyone here. Everyone will do their best. I don’t feel pressure but excitement. Every game is a privilege.”

“We need to just focus on the game on Thursday and go through it first before we jump to conclusions, something that we are champions in. From there we will move forward. We will need to bring intensity to the game against Iceland, knowing what we want from ourselves. There is a special team here. There are injured players and what’s special is that there aren’t many big stars, except maybe Eran Zahavi who I trust with my eyes closed. We have to let him take the reins and let him do what he knows best. You can’t teach him what to do.”

“We have an opportunity to make so many people happy and do good for a nation that is going through so many difficult things during this time period. We didn’t succeed last time, I hope we will do the task this time. There is a different atmosphere, the players have also been through one or two things and we are more experienced. There are two games, this is not a campaign. Everyone is playing in the league and we are not coming in after a break,” Kanichowsky concluded.