Wednesday’s State Cup Semi Final will be staged for the 86th time since Israel’s primary Cup was introduced. Maccabi reached that stage of the competition 50 times and advanced to the final on 37 occasions.
No Israeli side appeared in the Semi Final and reached the Final more than Maccabi. Hapoel Tel Aviv are second with 37 Semi Final appearances while Maccabi Haifa are third with 33.
In its’ last 17 appearances in the Semi Finals, Maccabi were knocked out only three times. Hapoel Ramat Gan (2003), Bnei Yehuda (2019) and Hapoel Be’ersheva (2022) prevented Maccabi from advancing through.
Over the years Maccabi were facing 25 different opponents in the Semi Finals. Beitar Jerusalem were the opposition in the Semi Final on four occasions knocking Maccabi out once 1986, with Maccabi successfully advancing 3 times (1987, 1997 and 2017).
The overall record between Maccabi and Beitar in the State Cup currently stands on 7 successful ties from 12 encounters.
Rafi Levy holds the record for the highest number of goals scored in the State Cup Semi Final with 5 goals to his name on the way to a 6-0 victory over Shimshon Tel Aviv in 1958.
Miko Belo made the most appearances for Maccabi in the State Cup Semi Final featuring 12 times in this stage of the competition.
Maccabi’s Semi Finals were decided by a sudden death penalty shoot-out on six occasions of which 4 resulted with a place in the Final.
Sammy Ofer hosted Maccabi for three State Cup Semi Finals and won all three.
A 3-2 victory over Bnei Sakhnin in 2016, a 2-1 victory over Beitar Jerusalem in 2017 and a 2-0 victory over Maccabi Haifa in 2021.
Maccabi also played 3 more State Cup ties at Sammy Ofer. An emphatic 6-2 victory over Hapoel Be’ersheva in the 2015 Cup Final, a 3-0 defeat to Maccabi Haifa in the 2018 Round of 16 and a 3-2 victory over Hapoel Haifa at the same stage of 2021.
