Haifa are shutout by AZ in Europa League opener, Maccabi T.A draw 0-0 with APOEL after 95th minute penalty miss

Football:

The Haifa players applaud their fans after the match (m haifa)

Maccabi Haifa opened their Europa League Group L last night in a disappointing manner as they were defeated 1-0 by Dutch side AZ Alkmaar at home. Actually the result was the only really disappointing part as Haifa controlled the match from start to finish, took 20 shots compared to AZ's 6 and even hit the crossbar in the 74th minute through an outside-the-box floating shot from Gustavo Boccoli. The only goal of the game came for the visitors in the 70th minute when a miss-hit Nick Viergever cross somehow reached the foot of Johann Gudmundsson who slotted the ball through goalkeeper Bojan Saranov's legs and into the back of the net.
As one would expect,  Haifa's manager, Arik Benado, was quite distraught after the game. "I have no doubt that we played very well, we destroyed them (AZ Alkmaar) in almost every aspect of the game", said Benado after the final whistle, "We played better than them from start to finish, but our finishing touches weren't good enough, and we conceded a goal from an attack that never should have happened. It is very disappointing, but the players deserve credit, they have proven that they can certainly stand up against high level opponents".

Haifa's captain, Yaniv Katan, also had what to say on the loss: "We played better, but we didn't manage to score and on this level you get punished for that. It is upsetting but that is football, we will lift our heads and move on".

Haifa's next Europa League match is on Thursday the 3rd of October when they travel to Kazakhstan where they will face Shakhter Karagandy.
Elsewhere, Maccabi Tel Aviv started their Europa League campaign on a sour note, with a goalless draw against Cypriot club APOEL FC. Maccabi had a clear chance to put the game to bed in the final minute of injury time (95th minute) when Barak Itzhaki received a penalty but the Israeli striker's effort was denied by goalkeeper Urko Pardo.
Maccabi Haifa will host Maccabi Tel Aviv on Monday (at 21:00) in an Israeli Premier League fixture.

Full list of this weekend's Israeli Premier League fixtures:
Hapoel Akko vs Hapoel Be'er Sheva (Saturday at 17:30)
Hapoel Nir Ramat HaSharon vs Hapoel Ra'anana (Saturday at 19:00)
Bmei Yehuda vs Bnei Sakhnin (Saturday at 19:00)
Ironi Kiryat Shmona vs Ashdod (Saturday at 19:00)
Beitar Jerusalem vs Hapoel Haifa (Saturday at 20:15)
Hapoel Tel Aviv vs Macabi Petach Tikva (Sunday at 20:00)
Maccabi Haifa vs Maccabi Tel Aviv  (Monday at 21:00)