Van Leeuwen’s history and a record that hasn’t been equaled in 28 years
Maccabi recorded their 9th successive league victory which is a rare achievement. The last time Maccabi recorded such an amazing run was the 1993/94 season (11 victories in succession).
The current run is the 6th best in Maccabi’s history, but the road to break the all-time record of 20 victories on the bounce is still long (recorded in October 1951).
In personal terms, Patrick van Leeuwen, has already reached one landmark since being appointed as Maccabi’s Head Coach. The Dutchman has a record of 12 victories and 1 draw which is the best ever start of a tenure for a coach in the history of the Israeli league.
When did we close an 8 point gap at the top?
In terms of the league table, Maccabi climbed to the top after closing an 8-point-gap from the leaders.
Only once in the history, Maccabi climbed to the top of the table after closing a bigger gap. On MD13 of the 2002/03 season, Maccabi Haifa had a9-point-lead at the top (Maccabi Tel Aviv 24 and Maccabi Haifa 33). Fifteen matches later, and in the middle of a three-horse-race that also included Hapoel Tel Aviv, Maccabi climbed to the top of the table after MD28 and didn’t leave the summit until the end of the season on MD33.
Five different penalty scorers this season
Enric Saborit’s successful spot-kick last night, was the third goal scored against Beitar and Maccabi’s 261st penalty in the league.
The penalty scored by the Spaniard was the 5th Maccabi player to convert a spot kick this season (Saborit, Matan Hozez, Dan Biton, Aleksandar Pesic and Yonatan Cohen 2). This equaled the record set in the 1999/00 and 2017/18 seasons of 5 Maccabi players to score penalties in one season.
Avi Rikan who scored Maccabi’s fourth goal on the night scored his 25th league goal for Maccabi and 30 goals in all competitions.
