Maccabi Tel Aviv will try and take another big step towards potential qualification to the Champions League Group stage. The Israeli champions host their Belarussian counterparts Dynamo Brest at Bloomfield stadium (Wednesday, 20:00) for a one-off knockout match as part of the third qualifying round.
This match, is one stage before the Playoff as the winner will face Austrian Champions Red Bull Salzburg for a two-legged tie. A victory over Brest will not just see Maccabi advance to the Playoffs but also secure a place in the Europa League group stages.
Georgios Donis’ charges reached this stage after knocking out Latvian side FC Riga (2-0) and Suduva (3-0) in the earlier stages. While Maccabi were held to a dramatic 2-2 draw against Bnei Yehuda at the weekend, Brest, that advanced past Astana of Kazakhstan (6-3) and Bosnian outfit Sarajevo – recorded a dramatic 4-2 league win at the weekend over Dynamo Minsk. The Belarus champions are struggling to emulate their achievements last season as they are currently ranked 9th in the table after 21 matches.
So far Maccabi played against 63 opponents from 37 countries, and Brest will be the face European opponent from Belarus.
In four two-legged ties against opponents from Belarus, the Israeli clubs won 3, drawn 3 and lost 2.
This is the 27th time an Israeli side tries reaching the Champions League group stage as 5 clubs managed to do so until now: Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa (twice), Hapoel Tel Aviv (once).
Maccabi kept two clean sheets from their first two qualifying matches, one match short of their European campaigns in 2002/03 and 2004/05.
Sixty one players scored for Maccabi in European competitions. Eran Zahavi is leading the goal-scoring charts with 15 goals, while Tal Ben Chaim from the current squad has 7 goals to his name.
