The Israel National Team defeated Belarus 4-0 this week in friendly action as Ran Ben Shimon picked up his first win as the blue-and-white’s head coach.
After falling to Hungary 3-0 in the team’s first of two friendlies, Ben Shimon’s charges scored early and often in Budapest at the Szusza Ferenc Stadion as Guy Melamed, Ramzi Safouri and Raz Shlomo all tallied in the first half while Mohammed Kanaan converted in the second half to polish off the victory.
Next up for the blue-and-white will be Nations League action in September, where the opponents will be a cut above the first two friendlies as Israel will play the likes of Italy, Belgium and France.
"An excellent game"
“This was an excellent football game across all parameters,” Ben Shimon began. “That included attacking after losing the ball and we showed from the first second that we came to win here. There are no easy games in Europe at these levels, but there are games that can be made easy and we did exactly that.”
Melamed also spoke about the conquest from the players’ perspective.
“I scored one of the easiest goals in his career – but one of the most exciting. It’s never too late to get the opportunity to play for the national team and I’m very happy that they called me up. I’ll tear up the grass every minute on the field. To me, every game and practice is important. We want to create a way and a process and come together as a group. It starts with these games and will continue in the official games coming up.”