Maccabi Tel Aviv suffered a disappointing defeat to CSKA Sofia this evening in the first leg of the Europa League third qualifying round. Head coach Kenny Miller shared his thoughts after the match and highlighted the objectives ahead of next week\u2019s decisive return leg.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis tie is still far from over, but the goal we conceded at the end certainly makes the challenge bigger,\u201d Miller said after the final whistle. \u201cThere were good things throughout the game, but there were also a lot of bad things. Once again, we didn\u2019t win our individual battles, which is the \u2018dirty\u2019 side of football, and we were too slow getting back when we gave the ball away cheaply. I felt we lost possession too many times even when we weren\u2019t under any pressure, like with the third goal, which came from a simple forward pass and a counter-attack. We were too open in those moments, and that\u2019s something that hadn\u2019t characterised us at the start of the season.\u201d
The coach continued by explaining what will be required next week: \u201cWe\u2019ll have to be much better next week. In the second half we saw that CSKA sat back and waited for those moments to hurt us, and they\u2019re good at that. We\u2019ll have to make sure we don\u2019t allow them so many opportunities like that, get back quicker and harder, and be much sharper in front of goal. We should have been 2-0 up after four minutes. We know we\u2019ll create chances, but in those situations we have to be much more clinical in front of goal.\u201d
Miller was asked whether he had been surprised by the Bulgarian side\u2019s style of play and replied: \u201cWe weren\u2019t surprised at all. It was exactly the same team we saw in their two matches against Qaraba\u011f. They work hard, defend well and don\u2019t give much away. In games like these, goals change everything and you have to know how to take your chances. Tonight CSKA took their moments extremely well, while we didn\u2019t show the best version of ourselves.\u201d
The match was played behind closed doors at an empty stadium in Batumi, and Miller addressed the effect that had on the game: \u201cIt\u2019s never easy playing without supporters in the stands, but it\u2019s the same situation for both teams. We still have to bring the energy, tempo and intensity to the game and push each other. The staff on the touchline try to help and push as much as possible, but on the pitch the players have to help their teammates. It\u2019s not ideal, but it\u2019s not an excuse that should affect our performance. For long periods we were in control, but when we lost possession, the goals we conceded were simply very poor.\u201d
Finally, the coach was asked whether the fact that the Bulgarian league season had already begun gave the opposition an advantage in terms of match fitness and stability.
\u201cIt\u2019s natural that players who are already six or seven games into their season will have a better rhythm, but it hadn\u2019t affected us until now. We came into this after three very strong performances and excellent results at the start of the season, so that\u2019s not an excuse. Football is decided by moments. We had two huge chances at the start of the game and didn\u2019t take them, and then conceded from their very first attack. The goal we conceded on the counter-attack in the final minute gives us a mountain to climb in the return leg, but next week we\u2019ll come with a better approach and take it step by step, goal by goal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maccabi Tel Aviv suffered a disappointing defeat to CSKA Sofia this evening in the first leg of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-577170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}