Shortly before the two-week international break, Maccabi Tel Aviv returned from Sachnin last night (Sunday) with three points. The champions beat Sachnin 2-1 and recorded the first league victory of the season, which included a few interesting statistics from a new club record to impressive statistics about our defenders.
A new club record
Statistics enthusiasts will be happy to hear that the victory at Sachnin set a new club record. This was Maccabi’s 12th victory in succession over Sachnin in a season’s first league round of matches – more than any other opponent.
Maccabi are one victory short of equaling the league record which stands on 13 successive league victories over the same opponent in the first round held by Maccabi Haifa over Bnei Yehuda between 1988-2011.
The victory increased Maccabi’s tally to 30 wins from 43 league encounters against Sachnin. By that Maccabi improved their success rate against Sachnin to 76.7% – the highest rate against any opponent Maccabi met 40 times or more in the league.
Aleksandar Pesic enjoyed a successful night in particular. The 28-year-old Serbian striker who made three substitute appearances against Sivasspor and Villrreal in the Europa League and Maccabi Haifa in the league, was handed his debut start. Pesic scored his debut goal for Maccabi as he lifted the ball over Sachnin’s keeper Rami Hamada for Maccabi’s second on the night.
In defense Maccabi showed impressive statistics and dominance as captain Sheran Yeini led the line by winning 12 of 15 duals.
Luis Hernandez led the team in the number of successful challenges (14) with Yeini (11) shortly behind him.
As for successful defensive tackles many players enjoyed a good game as Dan Glazer (4 from 4), Dor Peretz (3 from 3), Yeini (3 from 3), Saborit (3 from 4) and Kandil (1 from 1).
Kandil also led the team in the dribbling category with 4 successful dribbles from 5 attempts.
