Euro Qualifiers: Israel 3-1 vs. Malta – Chelsea’s Yossi Benayoun Hat-trick Seals the Deal for Israel
Israel were set to take on Malta in the first match of the Euro 2012 qualifiers. Before the match even began, most started regarding it as a David vs. Goliath match. This is because Israel possess a far superior football academy and training facilities when compared to teams like Malta, who are currently struggling to get a boost in the football world. Before the match even began, most experts claimed that it would be a walk in the park for Israel, mainly because the country had far more players playing at some of the best clubs in the world, when compared to the players in the Malta squad. The two most notable players on the Israel team who would be making the difference were defender (West Ham United man) Tal Ben-Haim and Chelsea man Yossi Benayoun.
The match was scheduled to take place in the Ramat Gan stadium, which is located in Tel-Aviv in Israel. The stadium is famous for having one of the best home supports that a team could ask for. The man who was made in charge to adjudicate the match was French referee Said Ennjimi.
The match kicked off to a rapturous crowd, who were edging the home team on. This extra help from the crowd seemed to be getting the better of the away team, who started to easily give the ball away and fumble all over the place.
Seven minutes into the game, Yossi Benayoun scored his and Israel's first goal of the game. The game seemed to be heading into an onslaught; however, that was not the case.
Malta showed some great heart and Jamie Pace managed to pull one back for the away team in the 38th minute and level the scores on the scoreboard. Israel didn't know what hit them, since they did not expect such a strong resistance from the away team.
However, neither team managed to score any more goals as the match went into the half-time break level at 1-1. Both the managers must have been asking their players to give it their all, since they knew that getting the three points on the night was the priority for the team.
In the second half, Israel started to show some more control over the game, while Malta started to rush into things. This overambitious play by Malta soon turned out to be their biggest mistake.
On the 64th minute, Malta awarded Israel with a penalty kick, due to a late tackle by substitute Andrew Cohen on Almog Cohen. It was a penalty which was taken by Yossi Benayoun and converted with ease.
From then on, Israel seemed to get a solid footing in the game. They were preventing Malta from creating any real chances and were starting to dominate the pitch. This domination was confirmed when Benayoun netted his third in the seventy-fifth minute. The player scored the first hat-trick on the opening day of the qualifiers and his three goals saw Israel take home the much-needed three points.
The game ended with Israel going on top of their table with three points and a +2 goal difference, while Malta hit rock bottom of their table with a -2 goal difference.
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