Although the footballers of Marijampolė's "Sūduva" and Tel Aviv's "Maccabi" will play the second leg of the Europa League third qualifying round next week, the Israeli media is already burying their country's champions, wrote lrytas.lt.
The Israelis were greatly disappointed by the clear favorite "Maccabi" losing the first match and no longer believe that this club can beat the Lithuanian champions.
The result of the first match - a victory of 2:1 for "Sūduva" at the Netanya stadium - surprised and disappointed Israeli football analysts.
"Simply shameful," - one.co.il wrote in response to the referee's final whistle. "Defeated," - another website sport5.co.il declared, emphasizing that although "Maccabi" lost by a small margin, they played much worse than the visiting team from Lithuania.
The website "Israelhayom" assessed the situation more calmly, with their headline reading "Difficult".
"It is no secret that at the beginning of the season, 'Maccabi' disappointed in its gameplay, but it is hard to believe that the Israeli champions lost on paper to a clearly weaker team. However, the opponents were weaker only on paper. Vladimir Ilić's 'yellow-green' team looked completely lost in the first half and were crushed, only threatening the opponent's goal once.
The Lithuanians played calmly and safely, and in the 76th minute, they managed to score a second goal. It seems that 'Maccabi's' European season is coming to an end. Perhaps even the biggest optimists do not believe that the Israeli champions can win away by a two-goal margin," - wrote one.co.il.
According to these websites, the best player of the match was "Sūduva" defender Samir Kerla, who scored the first goal. "S. Kerla scored the first goal, fought relentlessly throughout the match, and was the best player," - reviewed one.co.il.
"The opponents made fun of 'Maccabi'," claimed sport5.co.il. "Having dropped out of the Champions League, the Tel Aviv club played even worse and was humiliated by 'Sūduva' in the Europa League third round. The task of reaching the next stage now seems like an impossible mission. Just two weeks ago, V. Ilić's men lost 0:1 to the 'Cluj' team, but compared to tonight's match, 'Maccabi' played quite well."
Rolandas V. Eidvilas, lrytas.lt
