Maccabi Tel Aviv jumps out to big lead over Olympiacos, Haifa drops thriller

Maccabi Tel Aviv overwhelmed Olympiacos 4-1 as Eran Zahavi scored a brace in the yellow-and-blue’s UEFA Conference League round-of-16 first-leg victory. Zahavi found the goal early as he put away a Milson through-ball in the fourth minute, while five minutes later Ido Shachar scored off a rebound to give Maccabi a quick 2-0 lead.

Ayoub El Kaabi cut the lead in the 13th minute, but less than 20 minutes later Milson and Zahavi teamed up yet again with the Israeli striker scoring his second of the match to send the yellow-and-blue into halftime sporting a 3-1 advantage. As the second half wore down, Dor Peretz headed home a Gaby Kanichowsky cross in the 74th minute to close out the win.

Next up will be the second leg slated for Thursday in Serbia, which will be considered Maccabi’s “home” match at the TSC Arena in Backa Topola.

“I don’t know if this was our best game, but it was a great result,” Tel Aviv coach Robbie Keane said. “We played terrific football but we have to stay focused ahead of the next match. All in all, we are just at halftime. We played tactically correct and we knew how to find open pockets of space, which we did with Gaby Kanichowsky and Dor Peretz as Joris van Overeem connected them. We still have to keep our feet to the ground as there is another match.”

“This was a very bad game for us,” Olympiacos head coach Jose Luis Mendilibar said. “They scored three goals on three chances and the result was justified. They surprised us and could have even more so. I have a part in this loss and it’s going to be very difficult to come back from this. We will need a quick goal and even one is not nearly enough.”

Zahavi spoke about his club’s historical performance.

“This was a good result and you can even say it’s an excellent one for an away match, but nothing is over. We want to enjoy the moment ahead of the second leg in Serbia. This was a tough game, but the atmosphere was great against a terrific team and we recorded a wonderful result.”

Meanwhile, Maccabi Haifa fell to Fiorentina 4-3 in a barnburner of a matchup in Conference League round-of-16, first-leg play in Budapest, which was Haifa’s “home” match of the tie.

The Greens coughed up the ball in their half of pitch as M’Bala Nzola headed home the opening goal of the match in the second minute to give the hosts a quick lead. But 10 minutes later, Abdoulaye Seck stabbed in the equalizer off a Gadi Kinda corner. The aforementioned Kinda then gave Haifa a 2-1 lead in the 29th minute as Messay Dego’s squad went into the break nursing the one-goal advantage.

The lead disappeared when Lucas Beltran put in a Nzola ball in the 58th minute to draw Fiorentina even, but less than 10 minutes later, wunderkind Anan Khalaili found the back of the goal to hand the 3-2 lead right back to Haifa.However, Rolando Mandragora’s 73rd-minute low liner found the back of the goal and Antonin Barak’s marker deep into second-half injury time from inside the penalty area gave the Italians the hard-fought victory.

The Greens will play the second leg of their two-legged tie away in Florence on Thursday as they will look to overcome the one-goal deficit

“The late goal was like a knife going through the heart,” a disappointed Dego said following the game. “It’s really tough to digest after such an incredible effort. I believe that after having given up a goal so early in the match and then scoring three goals of our own really shows the quality that we have. But to lose like this is as painful as it gets, but there is another leg.”

“This was a positive result and one that we had wanted,” Fiorentina head coach Vincenzo Italiano said. “I liked the character that we showed, how we responded to a deficit and in fact we could have scored even more goals and conceded less. We should have not allowed their third goal, but we were able to overcome that.”

Haifa defender Lorenco Simic also spoke about the result.

“We have a bitter taste in our mouths after this game. Of course we wanted to record a better result and we just didn’t deserve to lose the way we did. We’re very disappointed about the goal we gave up at the end of the game, but we will now turn our attention to the game in Italy and do the best that we can.”