Maccabi last night (Saturday) won one of the most dramatic derbies witnessed here in recent years. Djordje Jovanovic’s injury time winner led Maccabi to a 3-2 victory over Hapoel in the Tel Aviv derby which led us to look for some interesting statistics following the match.
Last night victory took the all-time record to 57-46 in Maccabi’s favor. The record of an 11 victory gap between the two clubs also stretched Maccabi’s unbeaten league run to 16 in succession and 21 in all competitions.
This is the second time in history that Maccabi scores an injury time winning goal. Djordje Jovanoviv 93rd minute was scored at the exact minute Eran Zahavi scored in the memorable 3-2 derby victory in the 2013/14 season.
Jovanovic joins five more Maccabi players who scored in their first two league appearances. The 22-year-old Serbian striker joins Alejandro Kenig (1990/91), Ben Luz (1994/95), Yevgeni Kashenetsev (1995/96), Eran Levy (2005/06), Moussa Konate (2011/12).
Up until yesterday, Ben Luz was the only player to score winning goals in his first two matches (December 1994).
In his first two matches, Luz scored the winning goals against Maccabi Petah Tikva and Hapoel Be’ersheva, but these matches were not back-to-back.
Stipe Perica’s opening goal was scored after 160 seconds (3rd minute) and is ranked fourth in Maccabi’s fast goal list in derbies.
Dan Biton, dished out two assists for Perica and Gabi Kanichowsky) and played a key role in Jovanovic’s winner. Biton joins a list of 7 players who assisted two goals in derbies.
The 26-year-old midfielder stretched his recent good form with assists in 3 matches in succession. Over the past five seasons, only Eli Dasa (2018/19) and Eduardo Guerrero (2020/21) reached such an achievement.
All three goal scorers, Perica, Knichowsky and Jovanovic scored their debut goals in Tel Aviv derby matches.
