Prologue: It's hard for me to put into words how happy I am to start writing this column.
Half an hour after the outpouring of who-knows-how much on Zahavi and the final whistle in Thessaloniki, the mind was already on the game against Nice.
What do we need it I thought to myself.
One more time to give blood on the field against a tough European opponent, and "win" the most unbearable headline in the world in tomorrow's newspaper - "left with the compliments"?
No thanks.
Instead of quietly preparing for the league, for the meeting with Ahmed Abed and the striker Shlomi Azoulai, we are stuck with a pair of games against a group of millionaires from the French league.
Game day has arrived, and I'm already having a really hard time concentrating.
Even the lucky shirt I took with me in my bag to work started sweating during the day from the stress, and it was still in the bag.
In my head I ran over and over again the classic excuse "Who wants it anyway, only the league is interesting", and I saw in my mind's eye at 22:00 muttering "the lottery is impossible, proud of the guys".
I managed to convince the snoozer on duty who tries to push himself into football matters even though he has no idea that we have no chance, that this time it's not a matter of upside down.
that today, even a Somek-al-Ivitch formation will not help.
I can't be blamed.
The panic agents have been telling us for two weeks now about an insurmountable and high-quality team that recently got stronger in Shmeichel Havan;
in that for every one of his goals another celebrity dies (AKA Aaron Ramsey);
And the former Bayern Munich player is the captain of the team.
As if that's not enough, every moment another annoying report arrives according to which Nice is renewing the negotiations with Addison Cavani, trying to sign Marcelo from Real Madrid and there is an option that they will revive Maradona and he will start in the lineup just to beat Maccabi. What is this hogwash of theirs? Maccabi extended Jose To Ofir Davidzade and I said "Thank God" (a mistake, of course, in the original). They made me hate (another) club in Europe, just like that, because of football.
Maccabi extended a contract to Ofir Davidzade and I said "Thank God", photo: Alan Shiver
Towards 18:00 in the evening I reset and drive to the Bloomfield area.
The atmosphere outside the stadium is mixed, half of the fans are burying us alive and half believe in miracles.
For a moment I thought about Kvass who must still have the food left over from lunch, and what about him and this game.
Come on, what's nice now?
But there is something else in the magic of Europe, you enter the pitch and suddenly the cynicism disappears in an instant.
I was immediately filled with hope, and inside I wanted to make a game that would burn in the memory, something like the sweat game against Basel in the Champions League qualifying playoffs or the abnormal concert in the 2:4 against Frankfurt in the European.
And we received, and how we received.
When the Maccabi players came up for warm-up, it was evident that they were also excited for the game - everyone was at the book.
There is no better indication than this for optimal preparation of the Israeli footballer.
The first half hour of football and the panic in the stands is celebrating.
Nice shows simply great football, each player seems more technical and physical than the other - the feeling that we are playing against the monsters from Spice Jam.
Maccabi has trouble holding the ball for more than a few seconds and Daniel Peretz keeps us alive.
When they lost their first ball somewhere in the 36th minute and to break the terrible tension a little one of the friends shouted "they don't know" and every goal 8 burst out laughing.
When it drops to half, everyone smokes because of the pressure, even those who don't.
The second half is a completely different story.
Every time Nice tried to get closer, the Maccabi players managed to frustrate her a little more.
The feeling was that the Nice players were trying to force a glass door with a "Pull" sticker on it.
Ivic (while) genius game management leaves us with a clean sheet and makes winning substitutions.
A tremendous move by the Yugoslav duo makes a goal from the movies.
Ending an evening of dreams with a European standard note.
breakthrough.
Ivic's winning substitution, photo: Alan Shiver
I received a number of messages this week along the lines of "Relax, we'll pass."
To all of them I replied "go get tested urgently".
So I don't know what will happen next week, but suddenly I started to be convinced (that maybe) it is possible.
It's a little weird in my stomach to end the series like this, on loan from the city rival, but - we dismantled them 0:1.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
If you found an error in the article, we would appreciate it if you shared it with us