Osher Davida started his second season at Maccabi Tel Aviv as the winger who scored 3 goals in 40 appearances in all competitions last year begun the current campaign with 4 goals in 13 outings. The 23-year-old sat with us for an interview where he spoke about his time since joining Maccabi in the summer of 2023. Davida, revealed how the style of play this season suits his game more, how a word from Dor Peretz led to his dramatic winning goal, spoke about how the new foreign players settled in the side and how preparations have been going ahead of the top of the table clash against Maccabi Haifa at Teddy stadium

Maccabi Tel Aviv host Maccabi Haifa on MD7 for the league fixture which was played more than any other encounter between two top-flight clubs. Of the 180 league matches between the two sides, Maccabi won 73 lost 53 with 53 matches drawn and a total goal tally of 257-223.

No less that 411 Maccabi players featured against Maccabi Haifa in the league. Sheran Yeini holds the appearance record in that fixture with 43 matches, an all-time record for any Maccabi player against a specific opponent.

105 different Maccabi players scored against Maccabi Haifa in the league. Shiye Glazer leads the goalscoring charts with 22 goals against Haifa with Eran Zahavi second with 14 goals to his name.

Glazer scored 22 goals in 24 appearances against Haifa averaging 0.96 goals per game – a record for any Maccabi player against a specific opponent (a minimum of 15 matches).

Fifty-four players featured for Maccabi and Haifa with Roy Mishpati is the only member of the Maccabi squad to play for Haifa.

Since the 2012/13 season Maccabi won 6 league titles while Barak Bachar won 6 championships (3 with Hapoel Be’ersheva, 3 with Haifa).

Maccabi’s league record against teams coached by Bachar: 15 victories, 13 draws and 11 defeats with a goal tally of 53-40.

Bachar managed to beat Maccabi at Bloomfield only once in 13 attempts winning 2-1 with Be’ersheva in the 2015/16 season.

Over the years five league matches between Maccabi and Haifa were played under fans restrictions with all 5 effected by the COVID pandemic.

2019/20: Two Playoff matches with Maccabi winning 2-0 at Bloomfield and 1-0n at Sammy Ofer.

2020/21: Two matches in the regular season; a 2-2 draw at Sammy Ofer and a 2-1 victory at Bloomfield. An additional Playoff match was played in front of 5,000 fans at Sammy Ofer which ended in a 1-1 draw.

Maccabi Tel Aviv exploited the international break to hold a 70-minute-long practice match against Maccabi Petah Tikva at Kiryat Shalom that ended in a 1-1 draw.

Israel national team players Dor Peretz, Gabi Kanichowsky, Raz Shlomo, Idan Nachmias, Stav Lemkin and Elad Madmon were absent as they are in the squad that faces France (10.10) and Italy (14/10). Tyrese Asante is with the Dutch U21 team that plays Mexico U23 for a friendly (10.10) and Sweden U21 for a European qualifier (14.10).

With Roy Revivo and Ofir Davidzada still recovering from their injuries, Maccabi’s Head Coach, Zarko Lazetic, named Idan Weinberg who was an unused substitute against Maccabi Netanya on Sunday at left-back. Weinberg lined-up alongside Nemanja Stojic, Nir Bitton and Avishay Cohen in Maccabi’s defense in front of goalkeeper Roi Mishpati. Ido Shahar who recovered from his knee injury joined Joris van Overeem in Maccabi’s engine room with Yonas Malede completing the midfield trio. Wesley Patati and Henry Addo were assigned to both wings with Eran Zahavi leading the attack.

Petah Tikva took an early lead as Idan Vered’s strike on 21 beat Mishpati from the edge of the area. Malede was denied by the crossbar with Tomer Litvinov blocking his second attempt.

After the break, Lazetic made his first change as Issouf Sissokho replaced Stovic for the restart. Fifteen minutes into the second half, Hisham Layous and Osher Davida replaced Malede and Addo. Three minutes later, Sahahar was tripped by an opponent inside Petah Tikva’s penalty area as referee Gal Levy awarded a penalty which was successfully converted by Zahavi.

In the 67^th minute Lazetic introduced Yoav Honyo and Yehonatan Aviv allowing the young duo who have been training with the squad recently a few minutes of first team football.

Maccabi: Roi Mishpati, Avishay Cohen, Nemanja Stojic (Issouf Sissokho 36), Nir Bitton, Idan Weinberg, Joris van Overeem, Ido Shahar (Yoav Honyo 67), Yonas Malede (Osher Davida 51), Wesley Patati (Yehonatan Aviv 67), Henry Addo (Hisham Layous 51), Eran Zahavi.