An opponent that is deep into their domestic league season, the shock they encountered during the season, the defensive style of play, the stadium and the pitch Maccabi will play on as they fight for a Conference League group stage berth

Having advanced past two qualifying rounds, Maccabi Tel Aviv reached the Conference League Playoffs. Sahakhter Karagandy separates between Maccabi and another appearance in a European group phase, so shortly before the two legged tie kicks-off it is time to get to know our opponents from Kazakhstan.

Knocked out Steaua Bucharest and are well into their domestic season

Shakhter reached the Conference League qualification campaign after finishing fourth in the Kazakhstan top flight that was played last season over 20 matches only. This is Shakhter’s first appearance in European competition since the 2014/15 season, as the Karagandy side reached the Playoffs in dramatic fashion. The Karagandy outfit needed two sets of penalty shoot-outs against Romanian side Steaua Bucharest in the 2^nd round and sudden death spot-kicks against Ukraine’s Kolos in the 3^rd round, to reach this stage.

Karagandy’s name might be familiar to football fans from their first and only appearance in the Europa League during the 2013/14 season. During that season they faced Maccabi Haifa and were held to a 2-2 draw in the first leg in Kazakhstan before losing the corresponding fixture 2-1 in Israel.

As opposed to Maccabi’s previous European opponents this season, Shakhter line-up against Maccabi after playing 19 league matches as they are currently ranked 11^th in the Kazakhstan table.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

A post shared by ФК «Шахтер» (@shakhterfc)

A return to the artificial pitch

Shakhter had a poor start to their domestic season which began in March and included 4 defeats in the opening five league rounds which led to them parting company with coach Ali Aliyev. He was replaced by Magomed Adiyev, who also experienced an indifferent start but recently managed to steady the ship as Karagandy reaches the tie against Maccabi on the back of 4 victories and 2 draws from their last six matches in all competitions.

Despite the fact Shakhter comes from the city of Karagandy, they host their European matches at the Astana Arena in the capital city of Nur Sultan. Maccabi played against Astana at that stadium during the 2017/18 Europa League group stages as the artificial pitch will give Patrick van Leeuwen’s players a different than usual playing surface.

Three central defenders formation

Tactically, Karagandy tends to field a formation that changes between 4-5-1, 5-3-2 and 3-4-2-1. Shakhter scored 14 goals in 19 league matches so far while the two matches against Kolos in the previous round ended both in 0-0 draws before both teams were sent to the penalty spot.

Karagandy’s squad doesn’t lack experience as it consists of several players over the age of 30. Besides many Kazakhstani and Russian players, Karagandy has no less than 10 foreigners in the squad including Serbian midfielder duo Stefan Bukorac and Vuk Mitosevic. Karagandy top scorers this season are Arsen Khubolov and Aydos Tattybaev with two league goals each, so as far as goals Karagandy doesn’t score too much.

Regardless, Tattybaev scored 8 goals in the Kazakhstan Cup that took place over the past month, during which Karagandy met opponents from the top flight twice and another from the second division. Their record in those matches was much better as they scored 17 goals in 5 matches.          

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

A post shared by ФК «Шахтер» (@shakhterfc)

Stipe Perica completed his transfer from Watford to Maccabi after passing his medical and signing a one-year-deal at the club with an option to extend by a further season. The 26-year-old Croatian striker (193cm), joins Maccabi from Watford after an agreement for his transfer was reached with the Premiership club.   

Perica, told the club’s official website: “I am happy to be here and join the biggest club in Israel. I would like to wish my new teammates good luck in their match in Kazakhstan and hope to see all the fans in the stadium really soon”.

Maccabi’s Head of Football Department, Barak Itzhaki, added: “Perica is a striker with presence and abilities that perfectly match the profile we were looking for. We are certain Stipe will be a significant addition to Maccabi Tel Aviv’s attack and wish him good luck”.

Born in Zadar, Perica began his playing career at the Youth Academy of his boyhood club where he made his senior debut in September 2012 and scored during that season in the Croatian league 8 goals in 20 appearances.

After becoming the youngest player to represent and score for his country during the FIFA U-20 World Cup which took place in Turkey, Perica was bought in the summer of 2013 by Chelsea who loaned him out to NAC Breda. The Croatian striker scored 9 goals in 35 appearances for the Dutch side where he played until January 2015 before joining Udinese on loan. Having scored 3 goals in 20 appearances for Udinese, Perica made his transfer to the Italian side permanent and added a further 7 goals in 49 appearances until 2018.

The following season Perica spent on loan with Frosinone before switching to Turkey for another loan spell at Kasimpasa and Belgian outfit Mouscron for which he scored 7 goals in 15 appearances during the 2019/20 season. Last season, Perica scored a goal in 16 appearances for Watford in the Championship and helped the Hornets return to the Premier League.

Perica made 16 international appearances for Croatia’s young national teams scoring 9 goals between 2013-2016.

Maccabi faces Kazakhstani side Shakhter Karagandy on Thursday (16:00) for the first leg of the Conference League Playoff round. This morning (Tuesday) the team jetted out to Kazakhstan to prepare for the first of the two legged tie at the end of which a place in the group stage awaits the winner

.

Shortly after the training session at the PenguinPickUp training complex, Maccabi’s midfielder Dan Glazer spoke ahead of the task at hand. “We have a journey to a match in Kazakhstan which is far from easy. It is set to be one of the two most important matches we will have as we hope to do the job and get a good results for the return leg in Tel Aviv”.

Ahead of the conditions Glazer and his teammates await, the 24-year-old midfielder added: “We travel to a country at a different time zone with a 3-hours difference which we will have to get used to. This is the reason why we are flying at lunchtime and reach Astana this evening”. The artificial pitch at Astana arena is not a new venue for the team as Maccabi previously suffered a 4-0 Europa League defeat to Astana in 2017, but Glazer remained confident that this time round things will be different. “Tomorrow we will hold a training session on their artificial pitch so we will do our best in order to get used to it and get a good enough result that would bring the decider back to Bloomfield”.

Nadav Niddam, will play this season at Ironi Kiryat Shmona after both clubs agreed a one-year-long loan deal for the 20-year-old midfielder.

Niddam, who made his debut and only appearance for Maccabi during the 2018/19 season, spent last season on loan at Beitar Tel Aviv Bat Yam. The midfielder scored 2 goals in 42 appearances in all competitions  for the second division side including qualification to the State Cup Semi Final. Niddam also has 2 goals to his name in 29 international appearances for Israel’s young national sides.

On his recent form Peretz said: “I was always prepared to take the chances I would receive. At Maccabi there is such competition for a place in the starting line-up and every space in the squad. Every single one of us gives their best. I wish Dnaiel (Tenenbaum) a speedy recovery and hope he rejoins us soon”.

Ahead of the two legged-tie against Shakhter Karagandy, the 21-year-old keeper added: “We are going to watch them, study them and prepare for the games, but as usual we always focus more on ourselves. We need to improve our finishing touch in front of goal but at the same time experienced some bad luck. Our defensive game on the other hand was good”.

Tal Ben Chaim, who just like in Slovakia was once again denied by the Trnava woodwork, said: “We didn’t have the best of luck in these two matches as we were extremely unlucky. We hit the the crossbar around 5-6 times and the post once or twice. We created a lot more chances, but we should have converted those chances, there is no doubt about it. We should have turned this game into easier ones, but we will surely work on that ahead of the forthcoming matches”.

Pregame

Maccabi Tel Aviv lined-up for the 151st European match knowing that a victory over Spartak Trnava at Bloomfield stadium, will secure qualification to the Conference League Playoffs. The Slovakian outfit, that held Maccabi to a 0-0 draw last week, arrived on the back of Monday’s 4-0 league victory over bottom of the table Liptovsky Mikulas.

Patrick van Leeuwen didn’t make any changes from the side that was held to a draw in Slovakia as Daniel Peretz kept his place in goal with Matan Baltaxa and Louis Hernandez lining-up in front of him as the two central defenders.

Andre Geraldes and Enric Saborit completed the back-four on the right and left respectively while Dan Glazer and Sheran Yeini were named as the two holding midfielders with Avi Rikan completing the midfield trio. Rikan, together with Tal Ben Chaim, made their 50th appearance for Maccabi in Europe as the 32-year-old forward was named on one side of the attack. Matan Hozez, was named on the other wing aiming to celebrate his 25th birthday with a goal. Osama Khalaila led Maccabi’s attack hoping to emulate the brace he scored against Sutjeska of Montenegro in the previous round.

First Half

Maccabi began the match on the front foot with the first threat on goal inside the opening minute but Avi Rikan’s shot after 49 seconds sailed wide. Trnava’s Milan Ristovski tried catching Daniel Peretz off-guard but his weak shot didn’t trouble Maccabi’s young keeper. In the ninth minute Trnava’s defense struggled to deal with an Enric Saborit cross which fell to Andre Graldes whose shot went high over the crossbar.

Three minutes later however, the deadlock was broken with Maccabi’s first attempt on target. Sheran Yeini, on his 67^th European appearance for Maccabi headed in a Tal Ben Chaim corner past Dominik Takac to lift the 9972 fans off their seats.

Matan Hozez who looked dangerous down the right flank, floated a cross into the area on 34 before Ben Chaim leaped above his marker only to send his header high over the crossbar. A Yeini back pass in the 40th minute caught Maccabi’s defence flat, but before a Trnava forward managed to latch onto the loose ball, Peretz charged out of his box and cleared the danger.

Shortly before the interval. Rikan tore through the middle of Trnava’s defence before unleashing a powerful left foot drive that was pushed by Takac over the crossbar. The resulting corner saw Saborit cross the ball into the danger-zone only to be headed by Louis Hernandez onto the roof of the net.

Second Half

With no changes at halftime, Trnava came out of the dressing room a little sharper as Peretz was forced to be at full stretch to pull a stunning save and keep out Ristovski’s close range header on 48.

A darting Ben Chaim run from the halfway line in the 54th minute resulted with a through ball into the path of Hozez who was let down by his finishing touch as he shot wide.

Patrick van Leeuwen made his first change on 69 when Eduardo Guerrero replaced Rikan in a bid to add more firepower. Within a minute Maccabi came close to double the score as another pinpoint Ben Chaim through the ball released Hozez who once again sent his shot to the wrong side of the post.

As his passes were not converted by his teammates, Ben Chaim decided to try and score himself but the 32-year-old winger rattled Trnava’s crossbar on 72. This was Ben Chaim’s final contribution on the night as he was replaced together with Osama Khalaila by Eylon Almog and Ofir Davidzada in the 75^th minute.

Davidzada and Guerrero combined well in the 80th minute to carve an opening but the Panamanian’s shot that beat Takac rattled the Trnava crossbar once again.

Shahar Piven and Ido Shahar replaced Yeini and Hozez on the final minute as the skipper bowed out to a standing ovation while the fourth official indicated 5 minutes of added time.

Inside injury time Maccabi could have doubled their lead as Almog, Guerrero and Shahar charged forward on a counter attack but none of them could get a shot on target. A Trnava free kick gave Maccabi a little scare but the referee’s final whistle ended the tie with a narrow victory that was enough to secure the passage to the next stage.