Over the last few weeks we’ve looked back at some of the great moments in Maccabi Tel Aviv’s history. The current chapter of the “Season in a Decade” takes us back to the 2002/03 season which is fresh in everyone’s memory and will certainly put a big smile on any Maccabi fan’s face due to the drama that took place that campaign.

Maccabi came into the season after a dry spell which last saw the club win the championship in 1995/96. Those seasons were quite bitter memories and expectations were very down as Maccabi Haifa was looked at as being the favorite, winning the title the past two campaigns. The Greens played in the Champions League and had a number of quality foreigners in Giovanni Rosso, Nenad Pralija and Yakubu Aiyegbeni. Hapoel Tel Aviv also had a squad that could challenge for the championship as both Haifa and Maccabi’s crosstown rivals were the Yellow & Blue’s biggest threats to take the title.

We’ll get to the drama of the 2002/03 season soon, but one of the most memorable moments of the campaign came in Matchday 14. Nir Klinger’s Yellow & Blue didn’t get the season off to a fast start and another disappointing year looked to be in the works. Maccabi had to visit Haifa at Kiryat Eliezer as play by play announcer Yarom Arbel said at the start of the broadcast: “Maccabi Tel Aviv’s fans are here hoping for a miracle so the club can continue to battle for the title.” Klinger decided to change up his lineup and benched the King of Maccabi during those seasons, Avi Nimni to the shock of the national media. After 90 minutes of hard nosed football, Maccabi escaped the Carmel with a huge 3:2 win and a chance to continue their positive momentum for the rest of the season.

Watch the Highlights of the 3:2 win over Maccabi Haifa

Maccabi certainly kept up their positive play and defeated Hapoel Tel Aviv in the Derby, beat Maccabi Haifa this time at Ramat Gan Stadium and then went into the decisive stages of the season as they fought for the championship. One of the most important players that was unavailable due to injury was Baruch Dego. Who took his place as the team’s playmaker? None other than Avi Nimni. Number 8 returned to the Starting XI for the last two matches and was put to the test as the Yellow & Blue could taste the championship.

With Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Tel Aviv breathing heavily down Maccabi’s neck, the Yellow & Blue headed to play Beitar Jerusalem at Teddy Stadium. But just 30 minutes into the contest, the host’s took a 2:0 lead on goals by David Amsalem and Andrej Kubica. Despite the deficit, Maccabi found the inner strength and fought back thanks to an own goal by Indio Perrera and a Nimni brace to hand Maccabi a shocking 3:2 win to keep the Yellow & Blue at the top of the table. Nimni then scored a hat trick in the next match against Bnei Yehuda that was extremely helpful for the team’s goal differential as the championship went into a super-dramatic final Matchday.

Watch the action from Teddy Stadium

Maccabi was in first place level on points with Maccabi Haifa but with a better goal differential by two goals while Hapoel Tel Aviv was just 2 points behind. The Yellow & Blue hosted Hapoel Petah Tikva at a rocking Ramat Gan Stadium while Haifa travelled to the Yud Alef Stadium for a date with Ashdod. Both team’s goals were clear: To not only win, but win by as many goals as possible. The two matches began at the exact same time but it didn’t take long for Maccabi and its fans to feel despair. While it was 0:0 at the National Stadium, the Greens took a 5:0 lead against Ashdod! If things would stay as is, Haifa would win the championship.

However, over the final 45 minutes of play, the 40,000 fans who packed into Ramat Gan began rejoicing just a bit after Shlomi Edri of Petah Tikva missed a wide open goal that could’ve been disastrous for Maccabi as Andreas Prohonenkovs scored in the 63’ to give the host’s a 1:0 lead. Seconds later, the stadium rocked again when Shay Holzman scored for Ashdod to cut Haifa’s lead to 5:1 as Maccabi entered a zone. Reuven Oved and Nimni scored later on in the second half and gave the Yellow & Blue a 3:0 win and after 7 years, the league title. For many, this was one of the sweetest championships of them all.

Watch the drama from the final Matchday

Some of the photos from Ramat Gan Stadium