Maccabi reached the Quarter Final stage of the State Cup 54 times – 12 of which before the establishment of the State of Israel and 42 times since 1948.

Of all the 89 clubs to have reached the Quarter Finals, Maccabi Tel Aviv is the club to have done so more than any Israeli club. Hapoel Tel Aviv are second with 49 appearances while Maccabi Haifa are third with 48.

Maccabi advanced from the Quarter Finals to reach the Semi Finals on 49 of the 54 attempts and has a 91% success rate.

Of the 41 club to have reached the QF for three times or more, Maccabi failed to reach the SF only four times since 1948. Shimshon Tel Aviv have the second best success rate with 73% while Hapoel Tel Aviv are third with 71%.

Maccabi played the Quarter Final stage as two legged tie or a match which was replayed 13 times. Besides the State Cup Quarter Finals of the 1973 season when Maccabi were held to a 0-0 draw by Maccabi Petah Tikva and lost the replay 2-1, Maccabi advanced to the Semi Final on 12 attempts.

The last time Maccabi played against a second division side in the Quarter Final was against Hapoel Haifa in 1984.

A 0-0 draw at Haifa on 14.4.84 led to a return leg at Bloomfield nine days later which Maccabi convincingly won 1-4 with Moti Iwanir and an Eli Drix hatrick deciding the tie.

Maccabi faced Maccabi Petah Tikva in the State Cup 19 times 15 of which as single match and 4 over two legs. Maccabi advanced 13 times and were knocked out by Petah Tikva on 6 occasions.

The last time Maccabi played Maccabi Petah Tikva in the Cup was in the 2016/17 season. Tal Ben Chaim, who joined Petah Tikva from Maccabi in the summer scored the only goal of the first leg at Petah Tikva while Vidar Kjartansson and Oscar Scarione scored a goaleach in the return leg which Maccabi won 2-1 at Netanya.

Juan Pablo Colinas returns for a second tenure at Maccabi Tel Aviv, as the 44-year-old Spaniard who made a 100 appearances for club, was appointed as goalkeeping coach.

Juan Pablo, joined Maccabi as a goalkeeper in the summer of 2013, reached the EUROPA League round of 32 and won the league title at the end of the season.

The following year, Juan Pablo was part of the treble winning side while in 2015/16 he helped Maccabi qualify to the Champions League group stage before returning to Spain and playing for Numancia.

After one more season at Cypriot outfit AEK Larnaca, Juan Pablo announced his retirement and worked as a GK coach at Sporting Gijon.

The club wishes to thank Shura Ubarov for covering up as interim GK coach, Shura will return to his role at the Youth Academy

At the end of a turbulent Tel Aviv derby which saw Maccabi battle with 10 men before being held to a 0-0 draw by Hapoel Tel Aviv at Bloomfield, Dor Peretz didn’t hide his disappointment as he said at the end: “We arrived with a lot of motivation and so did they but it wasn’t enough on the night”. The 27-year old midfielder, added: “We didn’t play good enough football tonight and the chances we had and the number of shots on goal proved that. We need to play better football and know how to take our chances”.

Peretz, is aware of the fact Maccabi missed a chance to narrow the gap from the leaders even further, said: “We know that every match is super important and every point is massively precious but we remain positive as we need to move on knowing that journey is still long”.

On the departure of Oscar Gloukh and whether he was missed on the night, Peretz said: “Obviously he was a key player for us, but this club is strong enough and we will know how to manage without him”. Peretz admitted that the sending off of Enric Saborit midway through the second half, influenced the proceedings on the pitch, as he summed up: “Obviously after Saborit’s red card the we were in a tougher situation and the game was a different game to manage. But the journey is still long and we will continue moving on game by game.”

Preview

Maccabi returned to Bloomfield stadium for the MD20 ONE ZERO League match against arch city rivals Hapoel Tel Aviv as Aitor Karanka and his charges were ready to play the second Tel Aviv derby of the season.

Monday’s convincing 3-0 victory over Maccabi Haifa cut the deficit at the top of the table to five points. However, with Haifa being held to a 0-0 draw at home by bottom of the table Maccabi Bnei Reineh in the earlier match, the gap was temporarily increased to six. Any result in the derby but a defeat, would have seen Maccabi edge even closer to the league leaders and cut the gap to either five or three.

Oscar Gloukh’s departure to Red Bull Salzburg in midweek, meant that Karanka was forced to make at least one change from the side which beat Haifa.

The defence remained unchanged as Shahar Piven partnered Enric Saborit with the two central defenders lining-up in front of goalkeeper Daniel Peretz. Andre Geraldes and Ofir Davidzada completed Maccabi’s back-four on the right and left respectively as Karnka stuck with the same defensive formation. Dan Glazer and Dor Peretz were named by Karanka in the midfield engine room as the duo who had an outstanding game against Haifa had a battle at the centre of the park with their Hapoel counterparts. In the absence of Gloukh, Gabi Kanichowsky stepped into the side on one flank while Parfait Guiagon was named on the opposite wing. Eran Zahavi led the team out wearing the captain’s armband as the veteran marksman who scored 12 league goals so far partnered Djordje Jovanovic who scored 1 league goal less. The Zahavi and Jovanovic striking partnership that resulted with a total of 34 goals in all competitions were aiming to add more goals to their already impressive tally. On the bench, Karanka named Daniel Peretz, Joris van Overeem, Sheran Yeini, Avi Rikan, Eyal Golasa, Yonatan Cohen, Maor Kandil, Dor Turgeman and Nir Bitton amongst the substitutes

First Half

In what has become a tradition, seconds after referee Snir Levy got the game underway, dozens of flairs and smoke grenades were lit up at both ends of the stadium and hurled onto the pitch. Play was stopped immediately and resumed only around the 11th minute after the thick smoke which covered the pitch had cleared.

The opening stages saw both teams huff and puff in the middle of the park without being able to produce any end product. In the 28th minute Maccabi had the first serious chance as Gabi Kanichowsky and Parfait Guiagon exchanged passes before releasing Dor Peretz whose effort was blocked by a Hapoel defender. Two minutes later Eran Zahavi flashed a shot from a similar position on the edge of the area only for the ball to creep wide of the post.

To make up for the time wasted at the start due to the pyrotechnics display, the fourth official indicated 12 minutes of added time. Djordje Jovanovic came close as he rose above Hapoel’s defence to meet a Kanichowsky free kick but he headed over the bar. A minute later, Jovanovic was put through by Guiagon but the Serbian forward couldn’t control the ball allowing Emilijus Zubas to charge out of his goal and collect.

Enric Saborit, who normally supports the attack a lot more often, whipped in a cross from the left into the path of Zahavi whose header narrowly missed the target. Shortly before the interval, Shahar Piven became the first player to go into the referee’s book as the Maccabi defender was for bringing down Alen Ozbolt near the halfway line.

Second Half

In the 53rd minute Hapoel were awarded a penalty after Keys Ghanem lost his footing inside the area and Levy thought he was brought down by Saborit. But VAR intervened and cancelled the initial decision to give Hapoel a spot kick. Ten minutes later Hapoel’s defence failed to a clear a corner before Saborit sent a volley which cleared the crossbar. Maccabi continued the pressure in a bid to carve an opening as a Peretz shot on 67 struck the back of Jovanovic.

In the 72nd minute Hapoel came close to break the deadlock with their new signing Alexandar Boljevic denied by a combination of Daniel Peretz, the post and Ofir Davidzada. Levy awarded Hapoel a penalty and showed Davidzada a red card after he was judged to have handled the ball on the goal line. But once again VAR intervened and cancelled both the dismissal and the spot kick. In the 75^th minute, VAR could not rescue Saborit from being sent off as the Spanish defender needed a last gasp tackle on Keys Ghanem who latched onto a misplaced Piven pass and charged forward on goal. Saborit sacrificed himself and didn’t even look back as he walked off the pitch leaving his teammates to battle with 10 men for the last part of the game.

Karanka shuffled his side three minutes later as he introducing three players with Nir Bitton, Sheran Yeini and Avi Rikan coming on for Piven, Guiagon and Kanichowsky on 78. Yeini, made his 31^st appearance in Tel Aviv derbies to move within two more derbies from Maccabi’s all-time record holder who has 33 to his name.
Four minutes after his introduction, Rikan, came close as the veteran midfielder ghosted at the far post but couldn’t connect onto Zahavi’s cross.

In a bid to add a fresh pair of legs, Karanka, made his fourth and final substitution on the night as he introduced Eyal Golasa for Dan Glazer. Due to all the stoppages, the fourth official added 9 minute as Maccabi tried despite the numerical disadvantage to score. With no goals to either side, the full time whistle confirmed that Maccabi’s 8-year-long unbeaten record in derbies remain in-tact. But at the same time, the lost opportunity to narrow the gap at the top even further, meant that only one side was left on the pitch celebrating the 0-0 draw at the end.