Until the opening whistle they spend time in the pool: Maccabi Haifa fans have fun in Cyprus Israel today

About 2,000 Maccabi Haifa fans arrived in Cyprus in the last few days for the match against Apollon Limassol.

Most of them closed the flights right after the team beat Olympiakos and before the 0:4 home win against the Cypriots last week, otherwise, it is likely that some of them would have kept the money for the following games that await the club in one of the house stages, whether it is in the Champions League or the Europa League.

It became a different kind of trip.

With a big advantage of 0:4, combined with a destination where thousands more Israelis are on summer vacation, there is a combined atmosphere here.

A vacation with football, when some fans are sitting by the pool, the sea, but are already checking about flights to Belgrade in about two weeks, where, apparently, their team will face Red Star in the playoff stage.

Liav Nachmani

Ibrahim Khouri, from Haifa, says: "After the victory over Olympiakos, we booked a flight to Cyprus, that same night. There was no way I would miss another flight," said the fan Yerok, from the edge of the pool in Cyprus, adding: "I promised myself that I wouldn't miss any more games in Europe. I still can't believe that we won again 0:4 in the first game and towards the end of the evening I have butterflies in my stomach. It is true that we arrived here with a good result, but in every game of the team I am excited, even after ten years of not missing a game in Israel."

You have to look carefully for fans who closed the deal to Cyprus after the first victory over the Cypriots in Sami Ofer, but in the end there were also some and for completely different reasons.

"We wanted to close a game before the army and that was the only option," said Itai Friedman, a resident of Balfuria near Afula, "for us, seeing Maccabi doesn't matter when or where. Even after the great victory, it was still important for us to come and, of course, clear our heads before the draft. It could be that Last flight with the team for a long time to come, we didn't want to miss it and of course some time off."

Maccabi Haifa fans.

Pushing the greens with all their might, photo: Shahar Ezran

The fans are indeed in the pool, at the sea and at the tourist sites here in Limassol, but all around are the team's flags hanging on the balconies of the rooms or the chairs on the beaches.

The fans also come to the water with scarves and shirts, preparing for the game in the evening against Apollon.

They like this combination between a "stomach goal" and football, and if it ends with a ticket to the Champions League, then what's the good.

"We will come with poison in our eyes, despite clarifying, Dor Cohen from Kirit Motzkin: "Until then, I'm taking advantage of the time in the pool, even though I came alone Maccabi Haifa is a family, all of us, all the fans are having fun and passing the time until the game."

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