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Maccabi Tel Aviv will host Ashdod SC on Saturday at 19:50 for what will be the 61st ever meeting between the two sides, with Maccabi winning 37 times, 13 draws and 10 victories for the visitors. The goal difference is 108-45 in favour of Maccabi.

Maccabi’s success rate of 69 percent against Ashdod is Maccabi’s best against any of the 15 current clubs in the TASE Premier League that Maccabi have played at least 50 times.

Maccabi’s home record against Ashdod is 20 wins, four draws and three defeats — a 79 percent success rate. That is also the highest against any current league opponents compared to any club that Maccabi have hosted at least 25 times.

The unbeaten run at home against Ashdod currently stands at 16 matches, which is in the top six, and three short of the record, against Bnei Sakhnin achieved between March 205 and November 2018.

The biggest win over Ashdod was the 7-1 result in 1997-98 when Ben Luz, Nir Klinger, Efi Tzafrir, Haim Hajaj, Guy Tsarfati and Alec Nilash scored for Maccabi.

Ashdod’s only away win this season was at Maccabi Netanya. It was also the club’s first-ever win at the Netanya stadium against any opposition.

Ashdod have not won at Bloomfield since November 2010 when they registered a 2-0 result over Hapoel Tel Aviv.

Of the 43 men who have turned out for both sides over the years, the only current player to have worn the strip of both teams in Shahar Piven. He was loaned to Ashdod in the 2017-18 season.

Ran Ben-Shimon, Ashdod’s newly-appointed coach, who was Maccabi’s coach in 2008-09, has an overall record of eight wins, five draws and eight defeats against Maccabi — a 46 percent record. It is second only to Avram Grant, whose 65 percent success against Maccabi is the best for any coach who has faced us in at least 20 matches.

Ben Shimon will also be the first coach this season to face Maccabi after being appointed in the middle of the campaign and this factoid weighs heavily in favour of Maccabi and coaches have had only five wins, eight draws but have suffered 32 defeats.

The biggest defeat for any coach against Maccabi in the past decade was the 5-0 drubbing inflicted on Guy Luzon when he was in charge of Hapoel Tel Aviv in the Derby.