Category: Match day program EN

Trivia: Maccabi in Third Qualifying Round action

Posted on

The Numbers Ahead of the Return Leg Against Pyunik

Posted on

Pyunik is the first Armenian club that Maccabi faced in European play. Up until this season, Israeli clubs played Armenian sides five times and in each tie, the Blue & White club advanced to the next round.

Over the years, four Armenian players have appeared in the Ligat Ha’Al, the Israel Premier League including Ilya Yavorian who plied this trade for Maccabi.

Up until last match, Maccabi had only played one goalless draw in the first leg of a two-legged qualifying tie when they faced HJK Helsinki. The Yellow & Blue won the home leg 1:0 and advanced to the next round.

18 players have appeared for Maccabi in 5 European matches so far this season. Four have played 450 minutes to date: Eitan Tibi, Eli Dasa, Jair Amador and Predrag Rajkovic.

Maccabi has scored 6 goals in European action this season: Atar (3), Kjartansson (2) and an own goal.

In 5 European contests so far this season Maccabi has taken 71 attempts on goal while their opponents have taken 27. The Yellow & Blue have also won 24 corners to 18 by their rivals.

Eliran Atar has scored 78 goals across all competitions, 5 of which were from 20 meters or more. Two have been scored this season in continental play.

Stats Talk: Numbers from the first leg in Armenia

Posted on

The Pyunik long balls
One could see the difference in the style of play by the two sides during the first match as Pyunik primarily used the long ball and in essence gave up on controlling the ball in favor of quickly getting into the attacking area. Maccabi players made 97 short passes (between 0-10 meters) while Pyunik only made 36. On the other hand, the Armenians made 50 passes of 40 meters compared to the Yellow & Blue’s 37. The average pass by Pyunik was 25.8 meters while Maccabi’s stood at 19.7.

Another interesting statistic was the combination of keeper Andrija Dragojević and striker Mohamed Konaté as 7 passes from the shot stopper to the Ivorian footballer made their way into Maccabi territory or to the center circle.

At the end of the day, despite the differences in style between the teams, Maccabi controlled the pace of play and in key passes, which is one of the most important factors in today’s football. Pyunik made 3 accurate key passes out of 5 attempts while Vladimir Ivic’s side made 7 of 10 attempts.

The Armenian’s key defender
Despite Maccabi’s dominance in controlling the flow of the match in the first leg (68% possession) Pyunik was able to keep a clean sheet. The key player in maintaining the defensive presence was Russian central defender Maksim Zhestokov (#66) who put in an impressive performance.

The central defender was involved in 14 tackles and won 10 of them. In aerial battles Zhestokov won 4 of 6 while in tackles on the ground he took home 6 of 8. He also stole 6 balls and one of his passes turned into a key pass.

Threats up front
The Pyunik attack couldn’t find the back of the Maccabi goal, however there were a number of players who threatened the Yellow & Blue keeper. The striker Konaté (#11) had three attempts on goal with one of them on target and left winger Alik Arakelyan (#18) had similar numbers along with successful dribbles. In the first leg he had 4 successful dribbles out of 7 attempts – the most amongst the Pyunik players.

Final Preparations: Maccabi’s ready for Radnicki

Posted on

Maccabi Tel Aviv will continue their European journey this evening (Thursday, 20:00) at the Netanya Stadium against Radnicki Nis from Serbia in the first leg of Europa League second round qualifying.

Come be a part of the action: To purchase tickets for the home leg against Radnicki Click Here

In the video: Highlights of the win over Ferencvaros

Highlights: 2018/19 Europa League First Round 2nd Leg Qualifying Maccabi Tel Aviv 1:0 Ferencvaros

Vladimir Ivic’s side will continue on their path to the group stages of the Europa League after defeating Ferencvaros of Hungary 2:1 on aggregate in the first round of qualifying. Just ahead of the opening whistle of the second round, UEFA held the third round draw and determined that the next foe for the two sides would be the winner of Tobol Kostanay of Kazakstan and Pyunik from Armenia.

Radnicki will be the first Serbian club that Maccabi will face in European play and they advanced to this round after defeating Maltese outfit Gżira United FC 5:0 on aggregate from the two legged tie. The Serbian side also began domestic league action and won their first match of the season 3:1 over Proleter Novi Sad.

Head Coach Ivic addressed the media ahead of the first leg at the prematch press conference: “Radnicki may not have the name but they are very difficult and strong team. We must be ready to give 100% in both games to make it past the next stage. Our target is to win the game and play disciplined from the first to last minute. We want to give our best to get the best result. All of the players are ready.”

Midfielder Dor Peretz also looked forward to the first leg against Radnicki: “I think we are looking better every match and our goal is to advance to the next round. But right now we have to focus on the match at hand against Radnicki. Together with the support of our fans that is what we want to do.”

Fast facts:

  • Israeli clubs have played 7 matches against Serbian sides. The record: 3 wins, a draw, 3 losses.
  • Radnicki returned to European play after more than 30 years on the sidelines. The last time the Serbian outfit featured in continental play was in 1984.
  • In 2006/07, 3 Serbian players appeared for Maccabi in the same season – Milan Martinovic, Miljan Merdakovic and Dejan Ilic. That was the most foreigners from one country over the course of a single season along with Russia (1997, 1998, 2000) and Brazil (2005) and Spain (2014).

Stats Talk: What did we learn from the first leg against Ferencvaros

Posted on

Maccabi Tel Aviv will host Ferencvaros on Thursday (20:00) in the return leg of first round Europa League qualifying after Eliran Atar’s injury time goal helped the Yellow & Blue to a 1:1 draw in the first meeting between the sides that took place last week in Budapest. Ahead of the return leg it’s time to look back at the stats page from the first match to see what we learned.

Yellow & Blue Dominance
With a fabulous stadium and terrific home crowd support, Ferencváros wasn’t just any simple rival for the first 90 minutes between the clubs. The statistics show that Vladimir Ivic’s side was in control for the majority of the match. After the first quarter hour where the possession was even between the squads, Maccabi was able to hold onto the ball for 65% of the time compared to 35% for the Hungarians. Between the 45’-75’ the Yellow & Blue were even more dominant controlling the ball for 72% of the time.

Another area in which Maccabi had the upper hand was shots on target. The host’s had a total of 6 shots at Predrag Rajikovic’s goal with 3 on target while Maccabi had 16 shots over the 90 minutes with 5 on target. As time went by, the Yellow & Blue continued to press for the equalizer and had 5 attempts towards the Ferencváros keeper over the last quarter hour with one of them, Eliran Atar’s finding the back of the goal.

Ferencváros Key Players
One of the most important players for Ferencváros in Budapest was Uruguayan midfielder Fernando Gorriarán. The Hungarian side’s number 27 was very active and helped open up the game with his fantastic dribbling skills. Out of Gorriarán’s 11 dribbles, 9 of them were successful, more than any other player on the team. Some of the dribbles which were in Maccabi’s half of the pitch, gave the host’s a number of half chances and created opportunities although they didn’t have ball possession for the majority of the match.

Roland Varga (number 97) was another player who made significant contributions on the attacking side of the contest for Ferencváros. You can see from the diagram that he played furthest forward for the host’s and attempted 11 crosses into the box over the 90 minutes with 4 of them hitting the intended target.

Icelandic striker Kjartan Finnbogason who joined the Hungarian outfit during the summer was the main man when it came to the aerial game. The 1.90 forward was involved in 26 aerial battles and was successful 11 times while the next Ferencváros player, Gergő Lovrencsics took part in 9 and was successful 6 times.