The league match played more than any other
Maccabi met Maccabi Haifa 168 times in the league – as this match was played more than any other league fixture. Maccabi won 70 matches, Haifa won 48 and 50 matches were drawn with a total goal tally of 244-208.
Since the 2013/14 season eight matches took place between Maccabi and Haifa in the second league round. Maccabi won seven of those matches and another match was drawn (A 2-2 draw in 2016/17 at Sammy Ofer).
Maccabi currently holds a run of 18 unbeaten league matches against Haifa. Since January 2017 Maccabi won 12 league matches while 6 others were drawn.
This is Maccabi’s second longest run against any opponents, three matches short of the longest run of 21 unbeaten matches against Hapoel Be’ersheva which was set at the start of the new Millennium.
Since moving from Kiryat Eliezer to Sammy Ofer, Haifa hosted Maccabi for 13 league encounters. Of those 13 league matches Maccabi won 7, drawn 6 and lost 0 with a 69.2% success rate.
Kicking-off 2022
Ever-since Israel proclaimed its’ independence Maccabi started a new colander year with 66 league matches, 4 Toto Cup matches and 3 State Cup matches.
This will be the fifth time in the history that Maccabi begins a calendar year with a league match against Maccabi Haifa. Maccabi Petah Tikva (7) and Maccabi Netanya (6) met Maccabi more times as the first match of the calendar year.
Four previous league encounter against Haifa at the start of the year:
January 5th 1952 – 7-0 victory at the Maccabiah stadium
January 3rd 2011 – 3-0 defeat at Kiryat Eliezer stadium.
January 6th 2014 – 3-1 victory at Bloomfield stadium.
January 6th 2020 – 4-3 victory at Sammy Ofer stadium.
Liran Liani will officiate the match against Maccabi Haifa for the fifth time in his career. The 44-year-old referee oversaw 3 Maccabi victories (2012/13, 2018/19 and 2019/20) with another match ending in a draw (2015/16).
