Maccabi continued its’ good run of form on Wednesday with a 1-0 win over Hapoel Be’ersheva at Turner stadium to record the 8th successive victory in all competitions. Maccabi has 25 points from nine matches and are unbeaten with 8 wins and a draw. Throughout history, only four teams had a perfect start to their league campaign (9 wins from nine matches): Maccabi Tel Aviv (1954, 1993/94), Maccabi Haifa (2005/06 and 2009/10).
Only five teams previously enjoyed the start Maccabi has: Hapoel Petah Tikva (1954, 1955, 1964), Hapoel Haifa (1998/99) and Maccabi Haifa (2004/05).
Robbie Keane has a 93% success rate after nine league matches – equaled the best start a coach has had in Israel’s league history. Keane shares this achievement with Hapoel Petah Tikva’s coach Slavko Milosevic (1964) and former Maccabi coach Patrcik van Leeuwen (2020/21).
In 23 matches in all competition under Robbie Keane’s guidance, Maccabi recorded 19 victories, 3 draws and a solitary defeat.
The victory at Turner was Maccabi’s fifth victory over Be’ersheva in all competitions. Losing to the same opponent five times on the bounce happened to Be’ersheva 8 times in the past with the last team to do so was Maccabi Netanya in 2013.
Be’ersheva hosted their 179th match at Turner as Maccabi recorded their 7th victory at that stadium. This is the highest number of victories recorded by any club since Be’ersheva moved into their new stadium in 2015.
This was Maccabi’s third victory in succession at Turner equaling Be’ersheva’s worst run of 3 defeats on the bounce against Maccabi Haifa in 2019.
Eran Zahavi continued his outstanding run of form by scoring his 8th league goal and 21 in all competitions. No other Maccabi player has scored in 8 matches of the nine Maccabi played in the league equaling his own record from the 2014/15 season.
Only once in Israel’s history has a player scored in 9 of the 10 opening league matches – Nykita Rakuvytsya for Maccabi Haifa in the 2020/21 season. Three other players scored 8 goals in the opening 10 matches: Moshe ‘Kish’ Romano (Shimshon Tel Aviv 1970/71), Shlomi Arbeitman (Maccabi Haifa 2009/10) and Zahavi (2014/15).
