The Israel National Team faces Scotland in Glasgow on Thursday night in one of the European Championships semifinals for a chance to play in the 2020 Euros next summer. The winner of the one game semifinal will the play in the final of the mini-tournament slated for November against the victor of the second semifinal between Norway and Serbia. <\/p>\n
Following the match in Glasgow, the blue-and-white will then return to Israel for World Cup Nations League clashes against the Czech Republic at Sammy Ofer Stadium in Haifa and then at Slovakia later next week. <\/p>\n
In a pregame press conference, Israel head coach Willi Ruttensteiner made it clear that he is focussing on one goal and one goal only, \u201cWe are focusing only on the semifinal game against Scotland and that is our only focus. That is our only goal, to win that game. We aren\u2019t looking at the other two games against Czech Republic and Slovakia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last month, the blue-and-white played the Tartan Army at Hampden Park in a Nations League tilt that ended in a 1-1 draw thanks to a tying goal by Eran Zahavi. However, the bench boss doesn\u2019t know how much that game will actually help his team this time around due to potential changes in formations but is very upbeat at the challenge ahead.\u201c<\/p>\n
It\u2019s very difficult to say what they will be doing. I\u2019m more focussed on my team and our qualities and focus on what we can do and how we want to beat Scotland. That is what we want to try to do with the team. Our chances are 50\/50 and we have to take it. This is a chance for Israeli football. We will discuss and work on it and bring some new and surprising elements. I do believe that with good preparation we can beat Scotland.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s now question that Eran Zahavi is Israel\u2019s main goal scoring threat as the striker continues to fill the net for the national team and now PSV Eindhoven in the Dutch League as well. Zahavi recently moved from his club team in China, Guangzhou R&F to the Eredivisie and made an instant impact for his new team. He scored first goal and assisted on the second in PSV\u2019s 2-0 win over Rosenborg in an Europa League playoff contest for a ticket to the group stages of the continental competition. <\/p>\n
Zahavi then played a domestic league game on Sunday in which he assisted on the first goal of a 2-0 win over Fortuna Sittard, \u201cFor me, he\u2019s crazy. I had a phone call with him and he said that he will play both games ahead of the national team on Thursday and Sunday and that would be the best preparation. I wanted him to ask the coach and ask him to only play a half but he said that he knows what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a wonderful striker (Zahavi) here in Israel. The decision for him to sign with PSV was a good one and he discussed it with me. With coach Roger Schmidt he\u2019s in a good environment, it was a good decision and good decision for the national team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israel will be without numerous players who featured with the team last month due to them contracting COVID-19. Dor Peretz, Dan Glazer, Yonatan Cohen, Avi Rikan from Maccabi Tel Aviv and Taleb Tawhatha will all be unavailable for the match due to being infected. Ruttensteiner knows how much their contribution will be missed ahead of the do-or-die game, \u201cI was very emotional when I spoke to the Maccabi Tel Aviv players and Taleb Tawhatha who could have been able to play in the semifinal. I was very sad that they can\u2019t be a part of the team after they have helped us get to this point. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut the most important part is the health of the players. I was able to find some good players to fill in their paces and it could be a step for the future. I had wanted to invite Eyal Golasa for some time and it wasn\u2019t possible to have him in September due to personal reasons but now I have him with the team.\u201d <\/p>\n
Another challenge ahead of the Scotland clash is the fact that the Israeli government has not allowed the local league teams to practice and play games over the past couple of weeks due to the high level of coronavirus infections across the country. However, Ruttensteiner understands the importance of the government\u2019s decision, looking after the health and welfare of its citizens, \u201cFootball being stopped isn\u2019t good and it\u2019s sad because the ball should run. But the decision is from the government and it\u2019s for the good of the people. We have to do our best under the conditions.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have a good team and it\u2019s up to my staff to prepare the team. I want to see the results on Thursday as to what we prepared all week long. If we can avoid mistakes we can win the game, but 99.9% wont be enough.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Israel National Team faces Scotland in Glasgow on Thursday night in one of the European Championships semifinals for a chance to play in the 2020 Euros next summer. The winner of the one game semifinal will the play in the final of the mini-tournament slated for November against the victor of the second semifinal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":21539,"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":[29,31],"class_list":["post-21538","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-scotland","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n