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Maccabi Tel Aviv advanced to the third round of UEFA Champions League qualifying matches and will face Czech side Viktoria Plzen next week at Bloomfield Stadium after a 5:1 victory over Hibernians

The Yellow-and-Blue atoned for their 1:2 defeat to Hibernians last week in Malta with a 5:1 home victory at Bloomfield Stadium winning on aggregate 6:3. The supporters were out in full force cheering on their heroes throughout the game and helped Maccabi celebrate their return to home in style!

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Man of the Match Eran Zahavi caused fits for the visiting side all night long as his insertion into the starting lineup gave Head Coach Slavisa Jokanovic a different look offensively and many more options on the pitch. The captain was a constant scoring threat throughout the match, continuously slicing and dicing the Hibernians defense for the full 90-minutes. Not only did Zahavi score two goals, the first of which was a penalty in the second half, but his presence allowed for wingers Tal Ben Chaim and Dor Micha more freedom and space to execute plays and catch the Hibernians players off guard.

Maccabi began the game on fire trying to find a quick goal and put the pressure on the visitors, however it took until the 32nd minute when Brazilian striker Jorginho scored an own goal off an Eran Zahavi corner kick to put Maccabi in front 1:0.

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The slim 1:0 lead would have been good enough for Maccabi to advance, but in the 52nd minute a Gilmar corner kick found Rodolfo Soares who evened up the score at 1:1. This forced Maccabi to press even more as they would now need at least two more goals to move ahead in qualifying. Now only would they get the two goals, they would get four more.

Speedster Tal Ben Chaim was pulled down in the Hibernians box resulting in a penalty that Zahavi would convert in the 58th minute to make the score 2:1 for Maccabi. Then just three minutes later Ben Chaim would score a goal of his own to make it 3:1 and the rout was on.

Nosa Igiebor would join the scoring parade as he also put the ball behind Hibernians 'keeper Borg off a Zahavi free kick and to put the cherry on top of Maccabi's first European match at Bloomfield Stadium in over a year-and-half Zahavi would score his second of the match in the 90th minute.