The upcoming match will be the 137th league contest against Maccabi Netanya. The record over the last 136 games: 66 Maccabi wins, 35 draws, 35 Netanya victories. Goal differential: 216:144 in favor of Maccabi Tel Aviv.
In fact, Netanya is the opponent that Maccabi has the most wins against in league play – 66. Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Petah Tikva are tied for second place on Maccabi’s list of all-time victories with 63 wins against each side.
There have been 666,600 spectators for an average of 9,500 per match who have attended the 70 home contests against Netanya (One match was not played and Maccabi earned a technical win).
The biggest win: 7:1 in 1949/50. Yossef Merimovich and Shmuel Israeli each scored a hat trick in the match.
The upcoming match will be Maccabi’s first in 2019 and will also be the 6th time that the Yellow & Blue will face Maccabi Netanya to begin the calendar year (1955, 1968, 1991, 2004, 2007). Maccabi’s record? 5 wins.
Despite this their fine record against Netanya, Maccabi has had a bit of trouble in the first match of the calendar year so far this decade. In the 8 games played to date Maccabi has a record of 3 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses.
Over the years there have been 51 players who have appeared for both clubs. On the current squad Aron Schoenfeld, Itay Shechter and Dan Glazer have played for each side.
The goal scoring leader against Netanya is Benny Tabak with 11 goals. Avi Nimni and Sheya Glazer are in tied for 2nd place with 9 goals each.
Maccabi players have scored 5 hat-tricks against Netanya. Avi Nimni in 2002/03 is the only player to do so in the 2000’s.
Just 12 matches have ended in a 0:0 draw of 136 – 9%. Of the clubs Maccabi have faced in the past decade (at least 15 matches), Netanya is the only one who Maccabi has not had a goalless draw against. The last time the two sides played to a 0:0 draw was in 2007/08.