Less  than 24 hours since Maccabi advanced to the semifinals of the Israel State Cup competition, the defending Cup holders were drawn to face Bnei Sakhnin at the Israel National Team headquarters in Shefayim. The match will take place on either April 19th or 20th at Sammy Ofer Stadium in Haifa while the other semifinal will pit Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Beer Sheva in the one game winner take all match for a ticket to the finals which will take place at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem.

Head Coach Peter Bosz spoke to the Official Website about the semifinal draw opponent: “Like I said after yesterday’s match, it really doesn’t matter who we will play against. We still have to win two matches in order to win the Cup. Sakhnin is a strong team that happens to be in very good form and that’s why they are in the Upper Playoff round.”

Maccabi advanced to the semifinals of the State Cup after defeating Ironi Ramat HaSharon 3:1, Rishon Le’Zion 2:1 as well as Hapoel Kfar Saba in a two legged quarterfinal tie 5:0 on aggregate (3:0, 2:0).

The last time the Yellow-and-Blue kicked off against Bnei Saknin in State Cup play was in the 2006/07 Round of 16 when they won by the score of 2:1 to advance to the next round. The only remaining squad player from that match happens to be Yuval Shpungin.