Dabbur wants Israel to play with freedom
Thursday, June 6, 2013
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Munas Dabbur says Israel "are not nervous any more" as they look to put a disappointing performance against Norway behind them and get back on track against Italy.
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Israel forward Munas Dabbur put the hosts' disappointing showing in the opening draw against Norway down to nerves and knows they must relax to show what they are capable of and progress from Group A.
Dabbur scored four goals in the pre-tournament friendlies and came into this UEFA European Under-21 Championship on the back of a successful season with club side Maccabi Tel-Aviv FC, whom he helped to the league title with ten goals in 26 games. However, the 21-year-old's form counted for nothing once yesterday's curtain-raiser in Netanya was under way. Dabbur felt that the pressure of playing the opening match in front of an expectant home crowd was to blame for Israel's below-par display in the 2-2 draw with ten-man Norway.
"I want to see us play a lot better," he said, citing the performance, not the result, as the reason for a downbeat mood in the camp. "Our heads were not in the right place. We might have been too excited and not concentrating properly but the bottom line is that it wasn't good, it was bad.
"The main advantage for Norway was that they were able to disconnect from the whole atmosphere and just play their football. We didn't have that and in every part of the game you could sense that we haven't played competitive football together for a long time. However, it is not that bad – I can't remember many games where a 91st-minute goal is scored and both teams are disappointed."
Looking forward to Israel's next challenge against Italy in Tel Aviv on Saturday, Dabbur is confident that Guy Luzon's charges will now be able to settle to the task and reveal what they can do. "We can't think that Italy are better than Norway," he added. "We should stick to the thought that this is football and we can do anything.
"Even if Italy are a better team, it doesn't mean anything as we didn't play anywhere near our maximum level and that's a big shame considering this is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Now that we have the first game out of the way and we are not nervous any more, I believe we will produce what Guy Luzon is expecting of us."
Goalkeeper Boris Kleyman, who pulled off a number of saves to deny the Norwegians – but could not prevent Harmeet Singh's stoppage-time equaliser – echoed his team-mate's sentiments. He is hoping Israel will play with freedom against Italy. "It was very hard to sleep at night because we knew it would be stressful, but we didn't react well to that [pressure]," he said. "Hopefully Italy will be a different experience and you'll see a better Israeli team."