Three days after beating Maccabi Netanya in Saturday’s league match which was relocated to Haifa due to a radius ban, Maccabi Tel Aviv returns to the Sammy Ofer stadium this evening. This time round Maccabi will be the visiting team as they are hosted by Maccabi Haifa for the 34th league round.
When and where: Tuesday May 10th at 20:30, Sammy Ofer stadium.
Referee: Idan Leiba, VAR: Eitan Shmuelevic and Idan Yarkoni
Temperature: 17c (clear)
League table:
Maccabi are currently ranked 3rd with 62 points, four points adrift of second place Hapoel Be’ersheva (66) while Maccabi Haifa lead the table with 72 points. The runaway leaders are aware of the fact that a victory against Maccabi together with Be’ersheva dropping points in the corresponding match away to Hapoel Tel Aviv will secure them a second championship in succession.
Squads:
Maccabi will be forced to manage without Dan Glazer who will serve a one-match suspension due to yellow cards. Haifa will miss Glazer’s midfield opposite number, Mohamad Abu Fani, who was sent off in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Be’ersheva. Maccabi’s Portuguese central defender, Josue Sa, who was stretchered off during the 2-1 victory over Netanya is in doubt, as is Haifa’s American born custodian Josh Cohen with a shoulder injury.
What would have been a sell-out 30,000 fans, will now see a maximum capacity of 22,000 after the IFA‘s Disciplinary Court punished Haifa with the closure of their North stand for their fans’ misconduct.
This season so far:
So far this season both teams met in the league 3 times with Maccabi winning the first match in the regular season 2-1 at Bloomfield before suffering a 3-2 defeat in the corresponding fixture at Sammy Ofer. The first match of the Playoff which Maccabi hosted at Bloomfield ended in a dramatic 1-1 draw.
