Europa League
The drawing placed Maccabi Tel Aviv in Group E with Ukrainian runner up Dynamo Kiev, British Stoke City and Besiktas, the millionaire team of Istanbul. The media reported a "relatively comfortable drawing", considering the fact that Maccabi escaped rivals like Atletico Madrid or the Italian Lazio. In practice, however, the Group turned out to be particularly difficult. Most of the team's fans had guaranteed themselves seats in the stadium for the entire series, but they hardly enjoyed the results. The Yellows gained only two points in two encounters with Dynamo Kiev, and they suffered four losses, which ranked them last in the Group.
Round 1: Besiktas – Maccabi Tel Aviv 5:1
Overshadowed by the political turmoil between Israel and Turkey and under heavy security both inside and outside the stadium, the Yellows played their first game of the Group Stage at Inonu Stadium. Hugo Almeida, Portugal's forward, scored two goals (3', 28') as the game began, dampening Maccabi Tel Aviv's enthusiasm. The Yellows returned to the field with renewed energy and scored a goal off Roi Kahat’s header, just three minutes after halftime. Maccabi's fans hadn’t even finished celebrating when Manuel Fernandes sent a free kick into the air to Mehmet Aurelio, who scored a wonderful goal with a header. Maccabi Tel Aviv's defense collapsed. Egeman Korkmaz completed a second assist from Quaresma, setting the score at 4:1 for the Turks in the 53rd minute. With two minutes to go, substitute Edu tied it all up when he completed an offensive that slipped through Haimov's hands. Maccabi Tel Aviv was humiliated in Turkey.
Round 2: Maccabi Tel Aviv – Dynamo Kiev 1:1
Tel Aviv's coach, Moti Iwanir, who had been banned from the first three rounds due to a confrontation with a referee, watched his team score the first goal of the game. Bloomfield Stadium was completely full of Maccabi fans for a great game of football. Before the game began, Andriy Shevchenko, the captain of Dynamo Kiev and of the Ukrainian National Team, received a framed Maccabi Tel Aviv jersey, but the true gift came later, in the 9th minute. Ideye Brown received a deep ball and faced Guy Haimov on his own, easily scoring the goal. Despite the early advantage, the Yellows were favored throughout the entire first half and, with just one minute before halftime, Dor Mikha scored with a wonderful curve ball from the corner of the pitch past the Ukrainian goalkeeper. During the second half, Dynamo's goalkeeper locked down the goal, Dynamo took their one point, and Maccabi missed their opportunity.
Round 3: Stoke City – Maccabi Tel Aviv 3:0
Over 500 Maccabi fans traveled to northern England with one simple wish: not to take a beating and to maintain the Club's honor. Stoke was playing its first competition in the European arena and demonstrated superiority throughout all stages of the game, finishing it off with a smooth 3:0 by the 32nd minute. Kenwyne Jones scored the first goal with a header at the 12th minute, Cameron Jerome scored the second after a lift by Matthew Etherington at the 24th minute and Ryan Shotton scored the third just eight minutes later. The highlight of the game occurred at the 55th minute with the season's most bizarre moment. Jerome was sent off with a second yellow card after injuring Yoav Ziv. The Stoke City crowd did not approve of Ziv's fall and demonstrated its hostility every time he touched the ball. Tel Aviv’s defender finally lost his cool after a tackle that made him lose his shoe. He kicked it in protest toward the linesman, who got hit. Although the defender immediately realized his error and pleaded that the whole thing was a mistake, the referee sent him off the pitch, and the footage of the event had already made waves on the Internet.
Round 4: Maccabi Tel Aviv – Stoke City 1:2
The Yellows team hosted Stoke City in particularly English weather for their last chance at achieving second place. On the other side, the British team wanted to complete their "sweep" over the Yellows and, after 51 minutes of a slight advantage to the guests, Dean Whitehead (51') and forward Peter Crouch (64') sealed the game. After their double advantage, the British team slowed down their game and played against the clock until Roberto Colautti came on field as a substitute just 30 minutes before the end, scoring a goal in overtime. The Yellows ended with their first home game loss after 13 games, losing any real chance of going on to the next stage.
Round 5 – Maccabi Tel Aviv – Besiktas 2:3
The guest team from Turkey, equipped with a great deal of confidence from their first encounter, arrived at Bloomfield knowing that victory would guarantee them a spot in the next stage. To finish the job, they showed off Ricardo Quaresma, the star of the Portuguese team and the scorer of the two goals from the first encounter in Turkey. After Maccabi Tel Aviv demonstrated its superiority for most of the first half, Quaresma took advantage of a lift by Fabian Ernst to propel a fly ball toward the goal, just a minute before halftime. Two minutes into the second half, Ibrahim Toraman took advantage of a lapse in the Yellows’ concentration to score the second goal. Maccabi Tel Aviv regained its composure with goals by Sheran Yeini (59') and Moshiko Logasi (70'). With the Tel Aviv fans dreaming of a dramatic turnover, Quaresma scored again and his dribble during overtime ended the game with a swift kick to the corner of the goal.
Round 6: Dynamo Kiev – Maccabi Tel Aviv 3:3
Maccabi Tel Aviv ended its stint with the Europa League with one of the Club's more fascinating games in the European arena. Indeed, both teams no longer had any reason to play, making for a wild game with six goals, two red cards and one turnover. Nir Levine had replaced Moti Iwanir just days earlier. But he did not expect two quick goals for the Ukrainians by the 17th minute (Sheran Yeini, own goal 12', Oleh Gusev 17'). At the beginning of the second half, Kiev was left with 10 players and the response was soon to come with a goal from Omer Vered at the 49th minute. At the 56th minute, Kiev was left with nine players after Yevhen Khacheridi was involved in a fight and Eliran Atar took the advantage to tie the score at the 62nd minute. Moanes Dabur, who came off the bench just a moment before the tie, overturned the score with his first goal in Europe. Just when the Yellows thought they had secured the first three points in the rally, Oleh Gusev finalized the result.
