24 years have gone by since Maccabi Tel Aviv first played in the European Cup that has since turned into the Champions League. Avram Grant managed the team back then and eventually the Israeli coach became the first to coach a Premier League team and also guided Chelsea to the Champions League final.
“I remember every minute of Maccabi’s first match in the European Cup. Maccabi had won the league title for the first time in 13 years but what really excited us all was the chance to be the first Israeli team to participate in the Champions League,” the now Ghana National Team coach Grant explained.
Maccabi Tel Aviv will face the English Champions at home on Matchday Five of the Champions League and Grant will be there. He was also at the first match at Stamford Bridge that Maccabi lost 4:0.
“In the first game, Maccabi was pretty excited and I was a commentator on English TV. Everyone kept asking me if this is what Maccabi always looks like,” Grant commented. “That match was a lesson for Maccabi at the highest of levels, but I don’t think Maccabi’s play against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge was indicative as to how they play and how they perform in the Champions League.”
“Chelsea, a wounded animal? I don’t believe in that.”
“From Chelsea’s perspective I don’t think the match at Sammy Ofer will be much different,” says the former coach of the two sides referring to the upcoming game. “They know that they are better than Maccabi Tel Aviv. However, they also know that in sports anything can happen unexpectedly.”
Jose Mourinho’s team is coming into the match after a 1:0 win over Norwich, but not even the Portuguese coach of the Premier League champions could have never expected such a poor start to the season. His club sits in 15th place, 
only five points away from Bournemouth in the relegation zone.
Which Chelsea can Maccabi expect to see?
“There are some saying that right now Chelsea is like a wounded animal, but I don’t believe in that. Better to face Chelsea in their current state then last year when they were playing at the top of their game. In any case they still have excellent players that can determine the outcome of the match. There’s no question that Maccabi couldn’t have asked for better time to play Chelsea at home, but it still won’t be easy.”
“Chelsea will come into this match looking to control the play and to win because they need a victory in order to advance to the next round,” Grant added, “They know that if they don’t win it will put them in even a more perilous situation especially with all of the pressure building up within the club. They will treat this match very seriously and control the tempo in order to do everything they can to win.”
What does Maccabi need to do in order to take a point?
“Maccabi must find the balance between marking the Chelsea pla
yers and damaging their confidence. I don’t think that I need to advise the coach what to do, but in general, right now when Chelsea are lacking confidence they can’t give them space to control the ball. They will also need to know when to attack and damage their confidence.”
What is Chelsea’s weak point?
“It’s no secret that Chelsea’s defense is weak and that they have given up a lot of goals. I don’t remember a time when they have given up so many, so Maccabi must attack in numbers at the right time to bring Chelsea’s defensive confidence even lower. Even the smaller Premier League clubs knew to do this and took points from Chelsea and this is exactly what Maccabi needs to do. This is also part of the lesson that Maccabi must learn as well. Maccabi achieved an amazing accomplishment by making it to the group stages and they play well, but I think that they need to try to do the maximum to get a good home result. For Chelsea, they need the points and if they don’t win in Israel it will be a heavy blow. Maccabi should take advantage of this.”
“The British have marked Zahavi as Maccabi’s key player”
“In Britain they are all taking about Eran Zahavi and they marked him as being Maccabi’s key player prior to the first match, and I still believe he’s the key player for this upcoming match,” said Grant who couldn’t hide his impressions about the Yellow-and-Blue captain, who just scored his 100th league goal on Saturday.
“What he did in the qualifying matches was extremely rare. He scored all of his club’s 
goals. Each goal was even more important important than the one before and that’s not something that can be taken lightly. He’s still the key player even though Maccabi must play an even more team game in order to stop Chelsea.”
Chelsea’s key player:
“In my opinion the key player is still Eden Hazard. Although he hasn’t been in top form he’s still the player who can make something from nothing, but besides that Chelsea have many good players at different positions.”
A first rate European team’s style when playing away:
“Teams like Chelsea come to take points. When I managed Chelsea we went into away matches like this one with the goal of getting a good result. At home we would put on a show. One of the reasons why we made it into the Champions League final is because we took points away from home. This is what the players learnt from mistakes in prior years. Of course, every team comes to put on a good show but one has to know that an away match is something different than at home and Chelsea understands this. This season Chelsea has had trouble playing away from home.”
