The Israel National Team will face Scotland Friday night to open the latest UEFA Nations League campaign ahead of the 2022 World Cup. While there will be a standard qualifying tournament, the Nations League was created to allow teams a last chance to qualify for the big event skated to take place in Qatar. In addition, the Nations League takes the place of friendlies as the mini-tournament allows for more competitive games with Israel having the opportunity to play not only Scotland but Slovakia and the Czech Republic as well between now and the end of the calendar year.<\/p>\n
Ironically, the Blue & White will play Scotland once again at Hampden Park in Glasgow in October in one of the semifinals of UEFA European Championship Playoffs for a ticket to the Euro 2020 tournament that will be played during the summer of 2021. <\/p>\n
Ahead of Friday nights clash (21:45 Israel time), Monas Dabbur one of Israel\u2019s star strikers who plays his club football in the Bundesliga for Hoffenheim spoke about a myriad of topics including Willi Ruttensteiner who stepped into the role as coach, finding a way not to rely as much on Eran Zahavi, using this match as a dress rehearsal for October and beginning a new campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a new campaign and we\u2019re all happy to be here. I think we can do some good things in this group but it will be difficult, however, I believe that we can contend.\u201d <\/p>\n
About next month\u2019s game back in Scotland with much more at stake:<\/strong> Gaining confidence:<\/strong> Taking advantage of chances:<\/strong> Former Coach Andi Herzog:<\/strong> Not having to rely only on Eran Zahavi:<\/strong> On Shon Weissman siging with Real Valladolid:<\/strong> The Israel National Team will face Scotland Friday night to open the latest UEFA Nations League campaign ahead of the 2022 World Cup. While there will be a standard qualifying tournament, the Nations League was created to allow teams a last chance to qualify for the big event skated to take place in Qatar. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":21105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,30],"tags":[29,158],"class_list":["post-21104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-israel-2","category-israel-national-team-football-israel-2","tag-israel","tag-monas-dabbur","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n\u201cNext month\u2019s match is more important but we want to start this campaign off on the right foot. We are playing a tough team and we want to play well heading into the game in October.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\u201cThere is a good feeling within the team and we can feel that our confidence it much higher going into the game. We think we can do some good things in this campaign and we want to prove that we belong.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe strikers also need to help improve the defensive side of our game to help out. We have shown that we can do some good things on the attack and we need to take advantage of the chances that we will have.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI spoke to Andi Herzog still and he wished us good luck. We had a good time with him and we learned so much from him. We will try to continue what Herzog\u2019s had begun and there are things that we need to watch out for.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt\u2019s no secret that Eran was amazing and has scored so much. We hope he will still be the base and that\u2019s important for the national team. Other players really have to try and score as well as help out. It doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s Eran or other players, we will help him and he will help us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI\u2019m really happy for Shon and we\u2019ve spoken about his move to Spain. He has the potential to do very well there and I told him that it\u2019s important to learn the language as fast as possible and be a central figure in the lockerroom.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"