To date the club’s have played 31 league matches. The record: 16 Maccabi wins, 7 draws and 8 Kiryat Shemona wins. Goal differential: 54:37 in favor of Maccabi.
Maccabi’s home record versus Kiryat Shemona – 16 matches: 11 Maccabi wins, 3 draws and 2 losses. Goal differential: 36:14 in favor of Maccabi. The Yellow & Blue have a record of 9 wins and 1 draw in their last ten home matches.
If Maccabi doesn’t lose they will set a record for the most matches without a defeat start the season with 23. The previous record was set in 1953/54 and 1958/58 when they went undefeated in a 22 match season.
The 2:1 win over Kiryat Shemona in the first round was the club’s only comeback victory this season. It was also the only match that Maccabi scored a penalty.
In each of the last five matches between the club’s, 3 goals were scored per game (5 wins – four 2:1, once 3:0). The is only the second time in history that Maccabi has had such a streak with the last time being in 1952-1955 against Maccabi Rechovot where each of the five contests saw three goals being scored in total.
Omer Atzili has played against Kiryat Shemona twice for Maccabi and in each match he scored a brace. Atzili is the 11th player in Yellow & Blue to have scored a brace in his first two appearances against a single club. In fact, should Atzili score another brace against Kiryat Shemona he will be only the second player to do so with the first being Yosef Merimovitch (beginning of the 1950’s against Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion) to have scored a brace in their third match against the same opponent.
To date, there have been 8 penalties (four for each club) in league contests between the two and each one has found the back of the goal. Only matches between Ashdod and Maccabi Petah Tikva (12 penalties) and Maccabi Haifa and Shimshon Tel Aviv (9 spot kicks) have all been 100% successful.
The next match between the two squads takes place on February 16 as over the last 40 years Maccabi has played only three league games on this date. All three contests ended in a draw, 1:1 against Kiryat Shemona in 2015, 0:0 versus Kiryat Gat in 2002 and 0:0 against Beitar Jerusalem in 1980.
Maccabi’s biggest win over Kiryat Shemona was a 5:0 victory in 2015/16 when Eran Zahavi scored 4 goals while Omri Ben Harush added a lone marker.
Over the years, 18 players have appeared for both clubs. Eitan Tibi is the only current squad player to have also been with Kiryat Shemona.
The goal scoring leader against Kiryat Shemona is Eran Zahavi with 12 goals. Vidar Kjartansson is in second place with 6 goals.
