Haifa purring after Salzburg success

Defender Tsepo Masilela insisted he was "not surprised" by his Maccabi Haifa FC team's 2-1 win at FC Salzburg in their UEFA Champions League play-off first leg, although home goalscorer Alexander Zickler fumed: "We threw it away."

'Good attacking team
The home side paid the price for a lacklustre opening period when Maccabi took the lead through young striker Mohammed Ghadir's header and though the 35-year-old Zickler responded after the break, substitute Shlomi Arbeitmann's composed finish six minutes from time left Salzburg needing to score at least twice in the second leg to progress."I'm not surprised about the result because we have a very good attacking team," said South African international Masilela. "We have still have another game to play and anything can happen so we have to be focused. The game in Israel won't be easy because Salzburg are tough and physically strong."

Wasteful display
Former Germany international Zickler lamented the performance of the home side who now have it all to do at the Ramat Gan Stadium next week. He said: "We didn't get off to the best of starts but eventually we managed to put them under pressure and we got the equaliser. We should have held on for at least a draw, though; we threw it away."

'We can win 2-0'
Salzburg centre-back Milan Dudić was disappointed but determined to make amends. "The result is not good for my team but in the second game I think we can win 2-0," said the Serbian. "We did the job away at Dinamo Zagreb, winning 2-1 in the previous round, so we have a chance, I think. When Alexander scored we thought we could go on to make it 2-1 so we attacked for the next 20 minutes. We had two or three chances and were unlucky not to score. In Israel we must attack from the start and if we score in the first half it is game on. It will be difficult and Maccabi are a good side, but the dream is still alive."