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On Wednesday Maccabi Tel Aviv head north for round three of the play-offs to meet reigning champions Ironi Kiryat Shmona. A ten-item glance at the stats surrounding the match paints an intriguing picture

1 – In the first league meeting between the two clubs in the 2007/8 season, Maccabi striker Avi Nimni was sent off by referee Shai Shitrit a minute after coming on as a substitute. Of the 159 Maccabi Tel Aviv players ever to be sent off in league play, that was the quickest ever.

2 – This is the second time since the 1991/92 season that Maccabi Tel Aviv has lead the league table at the end of the series of regular season matches. That year the play-offs were much as they are today, two rounds between the six top clubs.  Then as now Maccabi won the first match (against sixth placed Maccabi Netanya) and drew the second (against second placed Bnei Yehuda). The third match was away against the third placed club, the then reigning champions Maccabi Haifa. Tel Aviv won 5-1, with a brace from the Jerusalemite Avi Cohen and goals from Yacov Halal, Itsik Zohar and Avi Nimni.

4 – If Maccabi win on Wednesday it will be their fourth consecutive away win, a record achieved only once in the past 10 years, in the 2010/11 season.

6 – Maccabi have played six league games at Kiryat Shmona, losing four, drawing one (the waterlogged match last January) and winning just once, 1-2 in the 2008/9 season with goals from defender Haim Megralashvili  and striker Scott Sealy.

8 – is the number of players who have played for both clubs: Eitan Tibi, Guy Haaimov, Omer Peretz, Shavit Elimelech, Rabid Gazal, Uri Shitrit, Guy Tsarfati and Yuval Avidor.

11 – Kiryat Shmona head coach, Barak Bachar, played in the starting eleven when his side Hapoel Petah Tikva lost 0-3 and handed Maccabi Tel Aviv the championship on the last day of the 2002/3 season. Since that match, Bachar has hosted Maccabi Tel Aviv as a player three times at Hapoel Petah Tikva and Ironi Kiryat Shmona, and won on every occasion.

14 – Maccabi Tel Aviv have faced Kiryat Shmona 14 times in the league. Maccabi have won five, Kiryat Shmona six and three matches ended in draws. Goal difference is 21:20 in Kiryat Shmona's favour.

14 – Since Maccabi Tel Aviv's last championship season in 2002/03, they have faced the outgoing champions in 14 league matches on the road and have never won. Nine losses and five draws.

19 – When the referee's whistle signals the start of the match on Wednesday, Maccabi Tel Aviv's young striker Gael Margulies will be celebrating his 19th birthday. On eight other occasions Maccabi Tel Aviv players have scored goals on their birhdays, most recently last season when striker Barak Yitschaki scored on his 27th birthday in a 1-4 win at Hapoel Beer Sheva.

1500 – That's how many people came out to watch the rain-soaked previous encounter between the two clubs in January, a match that ended in a goalless draw. To find fewer spectators at a Maccabi Tel Aviv match this century you have to go back to the 2009/10 season in a 2-3 Maccabi win at Hapoel Acco or the 0-3 Maccabi victory at Maccabi Petah Tikva in the 2008/09 season.

Statistics courtesy of Yaron Mishal