The second round draw did not brighten the face of Maccabi Haifa.
She got the strongest opponent possible, at least on paper.
Then came the pair of meetings with Olympiakos, especially the historic rematch in Piraeus, and Haifa showed that there is only difficulty in bread and in football it is really good.
So after the champion of Greece, the obstacle from Cyprus seemed much more of an offense.
Barak Becher continued with the lineup that looked wonderful in Greece, but changed his formation, starting in 4:3:3 against Apollon Limassol's three-back formation, with Daniel Sondgren returning to the defender position, Dolev Haziza starting on the right wing and Dean David on the left wing.
This formation allows sending more players forward, when there is a good connection between the wing players.
On one side David, who enters the position of the second striker and directs the line to Pierre Cornot, who likes to go forward.
And on the opposite side Sundgren enters the center and directs the line to Firecracker who likes isolations.
firecracker
Very impressive, photo: Alan Shiver
The superiority of Haifa was clear from the first moment, and only by a miracle did the Cypriots go into the half with a minimal deficit.
The brakes were stable, Haziza danced on the field, Charon Sherry handed out candy to anyone who wanted it, Franzadi Piero continues the trend of improvement even in the regular game and Ali Muhammad as usual ran for three players.
Haifa kicked 8 times on goal compared to one kick by the Cypriots, which was also not on target.
The problem in this half was only one - that it did not end with a double or triple advantage.
But this problem was also solved very quickly in the second half, and the one who solved the problem is the player who deserves to score more than anyone else.
Ali Muhammad, the best of the Haifa players since the beginning of the season.
The Angulo Kante of the Premier League did everything except one important thing - to bring the round and beautiful object together with the net.
So in 8 minutes he did it twice by joining from the second line, once with his foot and once with his head, bringing Haifa closer to a pair of fascinating encounters against the legendary Dejan Stankovic and Red Star Belgrade.
Muhammad.
Kante's performance, photo: Alan Shiver
This brings me back to Aesop's fable about the cricket and the ant.
This parable preaches hard work, proper preparation and forward thinking.
Haifa did everything right in the winter to prepare for the summer.
She brought in a great right defender, an attacking left defender, a striker with a presence most of whose goals come from the heights of the left defender, she kept Muhammad and brought the captain Neta Lavi back to form (his best game since the injury), and she did all this early, so that the best coach in Israel would have Time to put the ingredients together.
Will it be enough against the Red Star?
Not sure, but if Haifa continues to conduct itself in this way, the future looks greener than ever.
Neta Lavi.
In his best form, photo: Alan Shiver
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