The defence of the State Cup gets underway as Maccabi Tel Aviv begin their 2021/22 campaign at Bloomfield stadium against Hapoel Marmorek of the third tier.
Maccabi enter this stage of the competition (Round of 32) together with the rest of the top flight clubs as the current holders having beaten Hapoel Tel Aviv in last season’s dramatic Cup final.
After his unveiling on Wednesday as Maccabi’s new Head Coach, Mladen Krstajic, who was forced to watch his charges twice on TV, against Alashkert in the Conference league and Hapoel Hadera in the league – will make his debut on the touchlines.
Video: Last season’s State Cup final highlights.
Whilst in the middle of an extremely demanding fixture list over the month of December, Maccabi arrives at the State Cup tie on the back of a 3-0 league win over Hapoel Hadera that concluded the first league round. After recording a victory over Beitar Jerusalem in the league, Maccabi that qualified to the Conference League Round of 16 will aim to continue the positive momentum in domestic competitions by advancing to the Round of 16 in the State Cup as well. With fixtures coming thick and fast, Bnei Sakhnin travel to Bloomfield stadium on Wednesday (20:00) as the second league round begins.
The opponents
After being relegated to the third tier of Israeli football at the end of the 2018/19 season, Hapoel Marmorek are currently ranked 5th in the Division South table. Marmorek began their Cup run in the 5th round, and knocked out 3rd division side SC Dimona (3-1), needed extra time to see of 4th division outfit Beitar Yavne (3-1 AET) and Happoel Bika’at Hayarden (3-1) of the 3rd division.
Marmorek are coached by David Marten who was appointed in June with a task of helping the Rehovot based club win promotion back to the second division. Matan Beit Ya’acov is Marmorek’s leading player with 6 league goals and 2 in the Cup. Dor Alberman, the young brother of former Maccabi midfielder, Gal Albverman, will miss the tie as the Marmorek defender will serve a one-match touchline ban.
The numbers
This will be Maccabi’s 85th season in the State Cup and are the record winners with 24 Cups and 13 times as finalists.
Maccabi advanced from the first round they entered 76 times and were knocked out 8 times – and have the highest success rate of 90.5%.
Maccabi’s highest Cup victory (10-0) was recorded against Maccabi Bar Kochba Jerusalem in the first round of 1937.
Hapoel Marmorek faced Maccabi in the Cup twice as on both occasions the tie took place in the first round. Maccabi recorded a 7-1 victory in the 1961/62 season over Marmorek who were in then in the 3rd division, and a 3-1 win over Marmorek who spent the 1964/65 season in the 2nd division.
Maccabi’s all-time leading goal-scorer in the State Cup is Benny Tabak with 31 goals.
