Barda and Korine ahead of the derby: “We’ll need to turn the pain from the last match against them into motivation”
Hapoel will visit Maccabi Tel Aviv tomorrow (Monday) for the city derby as part of Matchday 20 in the Winner League. Head coach Elyaniv Barda and midfielder Roy Korine shared their thoughts at the press conference ahead of the clash.
“The win over Be’er Sheva? We’ve already forgotten it”, the coach opened. “We enjoyed it and celebrated for a day or two, and that’s it - we’re done. The upcoming match is the most important thing right now”.
“I really believe in my players and in my team, and I’m coming with great belief”, he said regarding the derby. “We need to continue doing the good things we’ve done since the start of the season and fix some of them. We have to arrive at the highest level of readiness”.
On the importance of a win against the city rivals: “I understand and know the intensity, even from my days as a player. A derby win gives a lot of strength and momentum for the rest of the season, but to achieve it you need to work hard - and that’s what we’ll do”.
When asked about the team’s away form: “The match is at Bloomfield, but we’re not hosting it. We set ourselves a goal in the second round to improve our away record, and that’s what we’ll aim to do in every away match”.
Barda addressed the squad situation: “Whoever plays will need to do the job in the best possible way. We’ve been playing with absences for two months now, but we’ve never used that as an excuse - and we won’t now either. Anyone who wears the shirt deserves it, worked hard for it and earned it honestly - and must give everything for it”.
On the previous game against Maccabi: “We watched and analyzed the last game, and there are many things we need to do better. The beauty of football is that there’s always another game and no time to hang your head. We’re expecting a very tough game with a great sporting rivalry. We’re not looking at the opponent, only at ourselves - we want to be the best version of ourselves and keep improving”.
Roy Korine said: “We really believe. In the second half against Be’er Sheva we didn’t show the level we wanted, but at least we came away happy with three points. We need to use that and arrive tomorrow full of confidence to get the result we want”.
On the impact of the last match against the rivals: “The cup loss was hard for all of us, especially because it was so close. We’ll need to turn that pain into motivation for tomorrow”.
“We’ll come to change our away-game statistics and to win. Everyone understands how important this match is for the fans and the club. We’ll arrive at peak readiness and motivation to achieve the result we want”, he concluded.
