Maccabi Tel Aviv reached the Europa League Group stages for the fifth time in a decade. Maccabi will discover their opponents for this autumn and winter as the draw for the Group stages will take place on Friday at 14:00 at UEFA’s Headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
Despite several upsets in Thursday’s Europa League Playoff, Maccabi were still ranked in Pot C’ thus avoiding the likes of Spanish side Granada, Italian giants AC Milan, former Europa League opponents AZ Alkmaar of Holland, fellow Dutch power-house Feyenoord, Greek side AEK Athens, Glasgow Rangers, Norwegian Champions Molde, Lask of Austria, CFR Cluj of Rumania that knocked Maccabi out of the Champions League last season, Hapoel Be’ersheva, and former striker Mounas Dabbur’s German side Hoffenheim. The first MD of the Group stages is scheduled to take place on October 22nd.
So who could Maccabi face? 27 clubs secured their place in the Group stage and were joined by 21 clubs who qualified through the UEL Playoff. Amongst the opponents that could qualify are Tottenham Hotspur that beat Maccabi Haifa 7-2 at White Harte Lane, CSKA Sofia that knocked out Basel as well as PSV Eindhoven featuring their new signing Eran Zahavi who scored on his debut to beat Rosenburg. As well as Zahavi and Dabbur another two former Maccabi players who could face their boyhood club are Eliel Peretz whose Austrian side Wolfsberg were placed in Pot D as is Mavis Chibotta with Bulgarian outfit Ludogorets.
Pot A: Arsenal (England), Tottenham Hotspur (England), Roma (Italy), Napoli (Italy), Benfica Lisbon (Portugal), Bayer Leverkusen (Germany), Villarreal (Spain), CSKA Moscow (Russia), Sporting Braga (Portugal), Gent (Belgium), PSV Eindhoven (Holland), Celtic (Scotland).
Pot B: GNK Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia), Sparta Prague (Czech. Republic), Slavia Prague (Czech. Republic), Ludogorets (Bulgaria), Young Boys (Switzerland), Red Star Belgrade (Serbia), Rapid Vienna (Austria), Leicester City (England), Qarabag (Azerbijan), PAOK Thessaloniki (Greece). Standard Liege (Belgium), Real Sociedad (Spain).
Pot C: Granada (Spain), AC Milan (Italy), AZ Alkmaar (Holland), Feyenoord (Holland), AEK Athens (Greece), Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel), Rangers (Scotland), Molde (Norway), Hoffenheim (Germany), Lask (Austria), Hapoel Be’ersheva (Israel), CFR Cluj (Rumania).
Pot D: Zorya Luhansk (Ukraine), Lille (France), Nice (France), Rijeka (Croatia), Dundalk (Ireland), Slovan Liberece (Slovakia), Royal Antwerp (Belgium), Lech Poznan (Poland), Sivasspor (Turkey), Wolfsberg (Austria), Omonia Nicosia (Cyprus), CSKA Sofia (Bulgaria).
