After the away loss at Astana, Maccabi Tel Aviv will look to make amends at home this evening at 20:00 when they host the Kazakhstan side on Matchday 4 of the Europa League. In order to prepare for the match, let’s check out three points to ponder.
A matter of timing?
Just like Maccabi, Astana is also playing in their domestic league and have a very important match upcoming on Sunday. With the season coming to an end, the capital city side leads Kairat Almaty by one point on the table.
On the final matchday of the season, Astana hosts FK Akzhayik Uralsk while Kairat welcomes Aktobe. An Astana win gives them the championship, however, they lost their last contest 2:0 to the same Kairat they are battling for the title.
It’s cold outside
Two weeks ago, Maccabi saw what Astana can do at home up close and personal. But away, the Kazakhstan side is a much different team. The last time the club won a European match outside of their friendly confines was in 2014 when they defeated Swedish side AIK. Over their last two campaigns in the Champions League and Europa League, they lost 5 times and drew once. In the one away match so far this season they fell to Villarreal 3:1.
Pay attention to the left back
Most of the attention from last match against Astana was on a pair of excellent foreigners, Junior Kabananga and Patrick Twumasi who each scored a brace. However a tremendous amount of credit also has to go to left back Dmitri Shomko who was a key participant in the Kazakhstan attack.
Shomko may be a defender, but he was the player who made the most key passes with 3 of 4 being accurate. He also took three attempts at the goal just like Kabananga and second to Twumasi. A look at the picture below shows that Astana likes to attack from the left side and Shomko, #77 was one of three players who was on that side of the pitch.
