Maccabi will shortly begin a new European season as they host Moldovan outfit Petrocub Hincest for the first leg of the Conference League 2nd qualifying round. Maccabi arrive at this tie with a rich history representing Israel in Europe for more than 3 decades, so we took the chance to dive into some of the stats.
This will be Maccabi’s 24th season in Europe and 11th in succession – more than any other Israeli side in terms of seasons in total and consecutive run.
Since was accepted into Europe in 1992, Maccabi played 167 matches in European competitions – more than any other Israeli club. Maccabi’s record to date is 69 matches won, 60 defeat while 38 matches were drawn with a goal tally of 222 scored and 199 conceded.
Over the years, 209 players represented Maccabi in Europe. Sheran Yeini’s is Maccabi’s all-time appearance record holder featuring in 82 matches in Yellow and Blue.
77 different Maccabi players scored goals for the club in the various European competitions.
Eran Zahavi is Maccabi’s leading goal-scorer in Europe getting his name on the score sheet 17 times.
This will be Maccabi’s third season starting a qualifying campaign in the Conference League. Maccabi featured 10 times in the Champions League qualifying campaign, 10 times in the Europa League qualifying campaign (5 under its’ previous name the UEFA Cup) and once in the Cup Winners Cup qualifying campaign.
Maccabi qualified twice to the Champions League group stages, 5 times to the Europa League group stages and in the 2021/22 season to the Conference League group phase. Overall Maccabi is the club which qualified to the European group stages 8 times – more than any other Israeli club.
Maccabi advanced passed the first European tie 18 times and were knocked out 5 times. Maccabi’s record in the opening European tie currently stands on 13 victories, 4 draws and 6 defeats.
Petrocub will be the 78th opponent Maccabi faces in European competitions and as this will be the first tie against a Moldovan side – the 39th country.
Israeli clubs met Moldovan opponents 4 times in the past with the record currently stands on 2-2. Beitar Jerusalem (1994) and Hapoel Be’ersheva (2017) advanced while Hapoel Tel Aviv (1996) and Ironi Rishon Lezion (1997) were eliminated by Moldovan clubs.
Baruch Dego and Nosa Igiebor are the only Maccabi players to have scored hattricks in the opening match in Europe.
