What happens when Maccabi returns from the International break?
Over the seasons Maccabi has played 301 League matches after the International break: The record: 141 wins, 90 draws, 70 losses

The Yellow & Blue have played Raanana twice after the International break and won both encounters by the score of 3:0 in 2009/10 and 2015/16.

Maccabi opening up the Jewish New Year
The upcoming contest against Raanana will open up the 70th Jewish New Year since the founding of the State of Israel, while in 1950-51 (5711) there were no games.

The most frequent opponents on the first Matchday after the Jewish New Year have been Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Netanya each playing 8 matches against the Yellow & Blue.

Maccabi has faced Raanana once on the Matchday after the Jewish New Year – 2015/16 (5776) which resulted in a 2:1 defeat at Bloomfield Stadium.

The biggest win on the Matchday following the Jewish New Year was 9:1 over Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion in 1951/52. Yosele Merimovitch scored 6 goals, the most by a player on the Matchday which opened the Jewish New Year.

This Saturday, Maccabi will look to win their first match following the Jewish New Year for the first time in four seasons.

This is the longest winless streak on the opening Matchday after the Jewish New Year since the 1960’s.

The fastest goal in the first match following the Jewish New Year was in 1994/95 (5755) when it took only 30 seconds for Yuri Shukanov to find the back of the goal against Maccabi Netanya.

Miko Belo started the most matches with 17 following the beginning of the Jewish New Year.

2010/11: Maccabi Tel Aviv 1:0 Olympiakos
The third qualifying round of the Europa League was certainly a challenging one, especially on paper. There were plenty of big names on the Greek side who took a 2:1 win in the first leg at home. Maccabi went into the second leg at Bloomfield Stadium aware that a slim 1:0 victory would do the job and help them advance to the next round. An unforgettable slalom by Barak Itzhaki followed by a 42’ goal by Roberto Colautti would be enough to send the Yellow & Blue to the next round.

2015/16: Maccabi Tel Aviv 5:1 Hibernians
Maccabi went into the second leg against the Maltese side after falling 2:1 away knowing that they would have to turn it around at home to advance to the next stage. After an early 1:1 tie, Slavisa Jokanovic’s squad took control of the match over the second half to make sure that there would be no upsets in the making.

2015/16: Viktoria Plzen 0:2 Maccabi Tel Aviv
The 2:2 away draw at Basel may be the most memorable match of all the Champions League qualifying games but the second leg in the Czech Republic may well have been the biggest win of them all. After falling 2:1 in the first leg at home, everyone thought that the dream may be over, except the Maccabi players would have the last laugh. The Yellow & Blue scored two late at Plzen to propel them to the next round in one of the club’s greatest victories in Europe.

Trends from the first leg
The first match saw Sarpsborg go on many fast break counter attacks thanks to their long balls and balls that were stolen in dangerous areas of the pitch. Due to the fast paced play, both sides had plenty of chances as each squad took 15 attempts towards their rival’s goal. Omer Atzily had the most of any Maccabi player with 4 shots on goal.

The Norwegian side looked for striker Patrick Mortensen as keeper Aleksandr Vasyutin sent the target man 16 balls throughout the 90 minutes. Sarpsborg primarily used the left wing for their attack (40) compared to the center and right wings which saw 50 attacks in total. Tobias Heintz was the most active player from the left side taking 7 shots towards the Yellow & Blue goal, almost half of their total chances.

Taking a look at the past
Maccabi will meet Sarpsborg in the second leg after falling 3:1 in Norway, despite the result, there are plenty of examples which prove that nothing is quite finished. We took a look at other ties which resulted in the team that lost the first leg moving on. Last season Swedish side Östersund fell 3:1 at PAOK in the first match but ended up moving on to the Europa League Group Stages after a 2:0 home win as the away goal was decisive in advancing. Another interesting fact from the second leg was that the first goal only came in the 71’ (the 2nd was scored in the 78’) so it’s worth being patient.

In addition, this season Zenit St. Petersburg lost 4:0 to Dinamo Minsk in the first leg, but won 8:1 in the return matchup. Rapid Wien fell to Slovan Bratislava 2:1 but won 4:0 in the second leg while if we look back at last season, Zenit fell at Utrecht 1:0 but took the home tie 2:0 to advance. Finally, Red Star lost 3:2 against Krasnodar away but won 2:1 in the second leg to move on.

Sarpsborg home and away
Sarpsborg will come into the second leg against Maccabi after losing a home league match 2:1 to Kristiansund. Head Coach Geir Bakke made wholesale changes to his Starting XI to give his players rest for the domestic tilt after the first leg match against Maccabi.

The Norwegian League has already played 20 Matchdays due to the weather conditions in the Scandinavian country. So ahead of the return leg we looked at Sarpsborg’s record at home and away. In 11 home contests, Bakke’s club has won 6, drawn 2 and lost 3 while in 9 away matches they have won 3, drawn 3 and lost 3 matches.

Sarpsborg is the first Norwegian club that Maccabi has faced in Europe.

Maccabi’s record against Scandinavian clubs (4 matches versus teams from Iceland, 2 against sides from Finland and last Thursday against Sarpsborg): 5 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss.

Up until this season, Israeli clubs have played 4 two legged ties against Norwegian sides. The record: 3:1 in favor of the Norwegians.

There has been only one player from Norway who played in the Israel Premier League – Fitim Azemi who played for Maccabi Haifa and made two appearances against Maccabi.

Maccabi’s biggest win in the Europa League Playoff Round was in 2011/12 – 3:0 home victory over Panathinaikos.

Over the years, 61 players have appeared in 11 Europa League Playoff Round matches. Dor Micha has the most appearances with 9.

Eliran Atar (the Playoff Round goal scoring leader with 4 goals), is the only player who has scored more than one goal in a Europa League Playoff Round match. He scored a pair of braces: Against Paris Saint-Germain in 2010/11 and Panathinaikos in 2011/12.

The youngest Maccabi player to have appeared in the Playoff Round: Moussa Konaté 18.5 years of age in the 2011/12 Playoff Round.

The oldest Maccabi player to have appeared in the Playoff Round: Yossi Benayoun 36 years old in the 2016/17 Playoff Round.

“I remember our first match in 2013/14 against Hapoel Acre after we were knocked out of the Champions League qualification rounds following a 3:3 draw against Basel. Barak Itzhaki scored the first goal versus Acre and then Eran Zahavi added the second in a 2:0 win which sent us on our way to the championship.”

“My first match was at the beginning of the 2015/16 against Bnei Sakhnin at Bloomfield Stadium. It was an amazing feeling to go onto the pitch as a Maccabi player for the First Team after growing up in the Youth Department. I’m happy we won the match and that we got off to a good start after the contest we had in Basel. I hope that the beginning of this season will be similar.”