Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach Slaviša Jokanović, admitted to The CJN recently that, despite the team’s qualifying for the Champions League for only the second time in history, there was also “a lot of room for improvement.”

But it is likely a statement from the club’s veteran footballer Tal Ben-Haim that rings most true following the team’s second loss of the competition. “This is an extremely difficult task especially if you take into account the calibre of teams we are facing in our group.”

Indeed.

Following the club’s 4-0 defeat to Chelsea, Maccabi squared off against Dynamo Kyiv at Haifa Stadium Tuesday and was dealt a 2-0 loss. 

Besides Tel Aviv, Kyiv is considered to be the weakest team in Group G.

While the Israelis did (eventually) prove that they were capable of competing at a Champions League level, they have yet to get on the scoreboard in the competition. Kyiv’s Andriy Yarmolenko, however, scored his side’s first goal just three minutes into Tuesday's match.

“I am so happy that we managed to get three points in a very hard game. I think Maccabi tried their best but we worked very hard and we deserved this,” Dynamo’s head coach Serhiy Rebrov, said.

 “After 11 years, Maccabi realised their dream and made it into the group stages of the Champions League and it is a dream come true but it is very difficult at this level,” Jokanović admitted to the Guardian. “We still have 12 points that we can gain and we will fight. Tonight we fought as much as we could but I am not disappointed, we know that Dynamo Kyiv are a better team than we are.”

“Sure, against a team that we are fighting for third place in the group we certainly wanted a better result," noted Tal Ben-Haim II (also known as Tal Ben Chaim). "They had a couple of chances and they scored but we have to look at the bright side and see that we played much better than we did against Chelsea.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv’s next fixture in the competition is on Tuesday, Oct. 20, against Portuguese side Porto. Game starts at 2:45 p.m. EST.