A Yellow victory against Ironi Kiryat Shmona would balance out the win-loss columns between the two clubs. Yaron Mishal has been crunching the numbers for us.
1. Maccabi Tel Aviv have only beaten Ironi Kiryat Shmona once on the road in five attempts, 1-2 during the 2008/9 season with goals from Migrashuli and Scott Sealy.
2. This season's first round fixture ended in a resounding 4-0 victory for Maccabi. For Kiryat Shmona this loss was by one of the two widest margins in their 154 matches in the top tier. The other was their last season's drubbing 0-5 at Bnei Yehuda.
5. Eliran Atar has scored 5 of Maccabi's 20 goals (25%) against Kiryat Shmona, Only Bnei Sachnin have conceded more to Eliran, 6 in all.
6. Kiryat Shmona have registered 6 wins in 13 meetings between the clubs. Maccabi have won 5 and the remaining 2 ended in draws. The goal difference between the clubs is 21:20 in Kiryat Shmona's favour.
13. Since winning their last championship, Maccabi have had 13 road encounters with the reigning champions without a win: 9 losses and 4 draws. Cause for concern.
14. Eliran Atar is also the league's leading scorer with 14 goals, a six goal advantage over his closest rival. This is the league's largest goal-scoring gap after 16 rounds since Mordechai Spiegler in the 1968/9 season.
37. The first official tie between the two clubs took place 37 years ago in the last 16 round of the State Cup of the 1975/76 season. Kiryat Shmona, then playing in the second tier League A North, managed to carry the match to penalties, but spot kicks by Dror Bar-Nur, Tsvika Rosen and Uri Salman decided the match in Maccabi's favour.
Courtesy of Yaron Mishal
