Not many people know that in their first encounter, Maccabi Tel Aviv put ten goals into the Maccabi Haifa net. Here are all the stats before tonight's match
1 – This is only the second time a match between these two rivals has been played on this date, the 29th of April. The first time, in the 1999/2000 season, Tel Aviv beat Haifa 3-0 courtesy of goals from defenders Felix Halfon and Jacky Tsarfati and midfielder Avi Nimni.
2 – The 2012/13 season is only the second time since the 1991/92 season that Maccabi Tel Aviv have been crowned champions during the regulation season. The order and the results of the first six play-off matches for both seasons are identical: Two wins against the sixth placed club, two draws with the second placed club, wins against the third and fourth placed clubs and a draw with the fifth placed club. In 1992 the match against the number two (then Bnei Yehuda) ended in an away win 2-3 with goals from striker Eli Driks and midfielders Nir Klinger and Itzik Zohar.
6 – Maccabi Tel Aviv are now on a run of six consecutive away losses to Maccabi Haifa. Maccabi Haifa are also responsible for Maccabi Tel Aviv's longest ever run of away losses to one club – seven in all between 1988 and 1991.
9 – Since the 2003/4 season, Maccabi Tel Aviv have failed to beat Maccabi Haifa twice in one season, the same season Maccabi Tel Aviv last beat their northern namesakes at Haifa's Kiryat Eliezer Stadium.
10 – The first encounter between the two clubs after the War of Independence (November 1949) ended in a crushing victory for Maccabi Tel Aviv in Haifa 2-10. That's the worst defeat Maccabi Haifa have suffered at home in any competition in the 1,220 games they have played there since the establishment of the State of Israel.
13 – The 13 points that now separate Maccabi Tel Aviv from second placed Maccabi Haifa equals the record for the club as champions, achieved in the 1991/2 season. The league championship won by the largest ever margin was in the 2005/6 season, when Maccabi Haifa finished 16 points ahead of their nearest rivals.
16 – After having played 32 of their 36 games this season, Maccabi Tel Aviv have won 76% of their matches, ranking the newly crowned champions 16th among the 61 teams that have won the title since the establishment of the State of Israel. All four of the championship teams with the highest winning percentages were Maccabi Tel Aviv sides: '49/'50 at 90%, '51/'52 and '53/'54 at 86% and '95/'96 at 82%.
18 – Up until the 15th round of league matches, striker Eliran Atar had scored 50% of Maccabi Tel Aviv's goals. With four matches left to the season, his league leading total of 22 goals represents 31% of the 71 goals scored by the team as a whole, ranking him 18th among the club's leading goal scorers on a seasonal basis. Striker Benny Tabak leads with 41% of Maccabi's goals in the 1988/9 season.
136 – The total number of league matches the two clubs have played together. Maccabi Tel Aviv have won 49, Maccabi Haifa 47 and 40 have ended in draws. Each have scored 182 goals in these encounters.
202 – Of the 202 Maccabi Tel Aviv league matches that have ended in goalless draws, 16 of them have been against Maccabi Haifa. The most recent one was their last encounter at Bloomfield Stadium on March 30th.
33,000 – The 33,000 fans who turned up at the National Stadium in Ramat Gan to see Maccabi Tel Aviv clinch the Championship are the largest number of supporters any club have ever brought to an Israeli Premier League match.
Courtesy of Yaron Mishal