Who will be Maccabi Tel Aviv’s first European opponent this season? After winning the Israeli League championship the Yellow & Blue will take part in a draw on Wednesday at 13:00 to determine their rival in the second round of Champions League qualifying at Nyon, Switzerland.
Maccabi will be part of the “Champions Route” where they along with 19 other teams will be drawn against each other. The Yellow & Blue have 16.00 points in the UEFA coefficient but will not be ranked which means they should be drawn against a stronger club, at least on paper.
The possible opponents in the second qualification round have been narrowed down to the following ahead of the draw at 13:00:
FC København (DEN)
Or the winners of:
Astana (KAZ) v CFR Cluj (ROU)
Ludogorets (BUL) v Ferencváros (HUN)
Partizani (ALB) v Qarabağ (AZE)
BATE Borisov (BLR) v Piast Gliwice (POL)
The first leg of second round matches will take place July 23-24 while the return leg will be played the following week. The draw itself will occur on June 18, 2019.
In order to advance to the Champions League, Maccabi will need to advance past the second, third and playoff rounds. Should the Yellow & Blue not advance past the second round they will enter the third round of Europa League qualifying.
This will be the first time Maccabi will take part in Champions League qualification after three years. Last time, the Yellow & Blue advanced to play in the Group Stages of the competition after defeating Hibernians (Malta), Viktoria Plzen (Czech Republic) an Basel (Switzerland) in the qualifying rounds.
