In this second matchweek of the Europa League group stage, Bordeaux are hoping to recover from their crushing first-match defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt, while Maccabi are looking for their first win in the competition. At the official Maccabi Tel Aviv website we're getting ready for tonight's match
Previous encounters
– This is the first time the two clubs are meeting in an official UEFA competition
– The only time Bordeaux have faced an Israeli team was in the group stage of the 2009/10 Champions League, against Maccabi Haifa. Both legs, in Israel and in France, finished 1-0 in favour of Bordeaux.
– Maccabi Tel Aviv have had four encounters with French sides: One loss and one draw against Lens in the 1999/2000 UEFA Cup, one victory and one loss against Paris Saint Germain in the 2010/11 Europa League play-offs.
European experience
After successfully advancing past the group stage in the UEFA Cup in 2007/08, Bordeaux also won in the first knock-out round before being stopped in the last sixteen. This achievement was repeated last season in the same competition in its new guise as the Europa League. Their loss 2-3 to Portuguese side Benfica Lisbon in the last sixteen in 2013 ended a run of twelve consecutive home European ties without loss, eleven victories and one draw. By contrast, Maccabi Tel Aviv ended a run of five consecutive European losses away from home when they drew 3-3 against Ukrainian giants Dynamo Kyiv in the group stages of the 2011/12 Europa League.
This is Maccabi's second appearance in the group stages of the Europa League, after finishing last in their group in 2011/12 with just two points from six matches.
Maccabi's goalless draw at Bloomfield Stadium against APOEL Nicosia in September represented their seventh straight Europa League group stage match without a win, the longest winless run of all the 156 teams that have ever participated in the group stage of the competition.
Facts and stats
– Maccabi Tel Aviv is the southernmost club participating in the competition this year, the Norwegian side Tromso being the northernmost. The two cities are 4,299 kilometres apart.
– Maccabi are one of nine teams in the competition who won their national league titles last season and were eliminated from the group stages of the Champions League. The other eight are: APOEL Nicosia (Cyprus), Maribor (Slovenia), Sheriff Tiraspol (Moldova), Ludogorets (Bulgaria), Legia Warsaw (Poland), Shakhter Karagandy (Kazakhstan), Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) and Elfsborg (Sweden). Only one of them won their first Europa League group stage match (Ludogorets). Five of them lost and three, including Maccabi, drew.
– Bordeaux is one of seven clubs in the competition to have won their nation's Football Federation Cup last season. They were also the only one of those seven to lose their first Europa League group stage match. One side drew while the other five won.
– In the only tie between a league champion and a Cup holder in the first group stage matches, Italian Cup holders Lazio beat Polish league champions Legia Warsaw 1-0.
*Tonight's match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Bordeaux will be broadcast on the Israeli sports channels Sport 1 and Sport 1 HD starting at 10pm.
*statistics courtesy of the official UEFA website
