Shortly before leaving for the airport and heading back home, and minutes after Maccabi were held to a goalless draw by Slovakian outfit Spartak Trnava, Eylon Almog summed up the game: “We are Maccabi Tel Aviv and we always want to win. One could see that we came with positive energies and we were prepared for this game. We created lots of chances but we are disappointed we didn’t manage to score. I am certain that at home with the support of our fans we will complete the job. I am always here to help the team and I hope it will continue in this way”.

Almog, who scored an injury time against Sutjeska last week, and missed a chance to add to his personal tally, added: “I also came close to score tonight and hope it will happen next week. We are all working very hard in order to improve and I think this is evident in every game we play”.

Pregame

Making the 150th appearance in European competition against the 70th opponent, Maccabi Tel Aviv began their assault on the Europa Conference League Playoff stage. A week before hosting Spartak Trnava at Bloomfield stadium, the Slovakian side hosted the 3rd qualifying round first leg at the śtadion Antona Malatinského, in Trnava.

Maccabi’s coach Patrick van Leeuwen who was several players through injury was forced to make some changes from the side that advanced past Sutjeska in the previous round.

With Daniel Tenenbaum still not a 100% fit, young Daniel Peretz who had a promising start to the campaign, kept his place in goal. Matan Baltaxa and Louis Hernandez lined up as the two central defenders with Andre Geraldes on the right and Enric Saborit on the left completed the back four. Sheran Yeini who missed the previous round with COVID, led the side with the captain’s armband as he partnered Dan Glazer at the heart of midfield. Avi Rikan completed the midfield trio while Matan Hozez and Tal Ben Chaim on his 32nd birthday were named by Van Leeuwen as the two wingers. Osama Khalaila, who scored a brace in last week’s return leg against the Montenegrins led the attack aiming to replicate his performance.

First Half

Maccabi began the match on the front foot and came close to break the deadlock as early as the fifth minute when Osama release Tal Ben Chaim into the area. The winger, cut onto his right before unleashing a low drive that struck the base of the post to deny the 32-year-old a goal an perfect birthday present. In the 9th minute Maccabi’s defense were stretched as a Saymon Cabral cross rolled across the face of goal with Bamidele Yusuf failing to make contact. In the 15th minute however, Maccabi struck the woodwork once again as Matan Hozez’s trickery down the right flank resulted with a pinpoint cross that was headed by Matan Baltaxa onto the crossbar.

Maccabi continued pushing forward as Andre Geraldes combined well with Hozez in the 20th minute only to see the cross of the Portuguese full-back deflected out by a Trnava defender before Avi Rikan or Khalaila could connect.

Hozez flashed a left foot shot that cleared the crossbar on 25, but four minutes later Hozez whipped in a free kick that was tipped over by goalkeeper Dominic Takac. Hozez came even closer less than sixty seconds later as Ben Chaim picked him at the back post with a delicate chip but despite directing his header on goal, Filip Twardzik managed to rescue Trnava from conceding as he headed the ball off his line.

Russian referee Kiril Levnikov didn’t add a second as he blew the halftime whistle exactly in the 45th minute sending both teams into the dressing room with the score still at 0-0.

Second half 

The second half began exactly where the first one left off as Hozez blasted a left foot shot high and wide of the target. Jan Vlasko became the first player to enter the referee’s book for a foul on Dan Glazer in the 52nd minute. The same Vlasko escaped a second booking on 57 for a foul on Ben Chaim near the corner of the area. The winger picked himself up and curled a free kick that found Khalaila but the forward sent his header high over the bar.

Van Leeuwen made his first change in the 65th minute as Shahar Piven replaced the industrious Yeini who handed the captain’s armband to Glazer. While Maccabi tried desperately to find an opening but were denied time after time by Spartak’s defence, Daniel Peretz was forced to make a first serious save in the 69th minute. The talented young keeper was at full stretch to push out Kyriakos Savividis’s shot out for a corner that was cleared by Maccabi’s defence. Van Leeuwen made a double change in the 76th minute as Maor Kandil and Eylon Almog replaced both Khalaila and Ben Chaim.

Almog introduced himself well into the game as his turn on the edge of Spartak area in the 80th minute left a defender stranded but the Maccabi forward’s final touch let himself down as he tried releasing Rikan instead of trying to shoot. Three minutes later, Almog managed a dangerous shot on target, but Takac pushed the ball out. Ido Shahar replaced Hozez in the 89th minute as Van Leeuwen made his final substitution of the game. Inside injury time, Kandil found himself deep inside Trnava’s penalty area, but his shot rattled the crossbar shortly before the referee blew the full time whistle.

With no goals scored in Slovakia, both teams will meet at Bloomfield once again as they compete for a place in the Conference League Playoffs.

150 European matches  

Maccabi reached an impressive landmark as the match against Spartak Trnava will mark the 150^th appearance in European competition – more than any other Israeli club.

Our record so far shows: 60 victories, 56 defeats and 33 draws with a total goal tally of 195-188.

Spartak Trnava will be the 70^th opponent Maccabi faces in Europe and the second Slovakian side.

Zilina met Maccabi in the 2003/04 for a Champions League qualifier. Zilina won the first leg 1-0 in Slovakia before advancing to the next round following a 1-1 draw at the return leg which was relocated to Cyprus due to the security situation.

Besides Maccabi, two more Israeli clubs competed against Slovakian opponents. Kiryat Shmona met Zilina in the 2012/13 Champions League 2^nd qualifying round and Bnei Yehuda faced Trencin in the 2017/18 Europa League 2^nd qualifying round with both Israeli teams advancing through.

Our 3^rd Qualifying round record?

Ahead of the 2009/10 season UEFA launched the EUROPA League to replace the UEFA Cup as several changes were introduced to the Champions League format. Both competitions saw the introduction of three qualifying rounds with a Playoff also played as two-legged tie before the Group phase.

Since the 2009/10 season, Maccabi made 10 appearances in the 3^rd qualifying round. Four times Maccabi played at that stage in the Champions League, advancing twice and being knocked out twice. In six attempts to qualify from the EUROPA League 3^rd qualifying round, Maccabi were successful and reached the Playoffs on 5 occasions and were knocked out once.

A favorable date

Maccabi’s first leg against Spartak Trnava will take place on August 5^th , a date that has entered Maccabi’s history books with two important previous qualifiers.

A Roberto Colautti winner in 2010 at Bloomfield led Maccabi to a 1-0 victory over Olympiacos to book a place in the EUROPA League Playoff thanks to the away goal rule as the tie ended 2-2 on aggregate.

Eran Zahavi scored a brace in 2015 away to Victoria Plzen to book Maccabi’s place in the Champions League Playoff after the first leg at Bloomfield ended with a 2-1 defeat.

As opposed to the match in Trnava, both matches decided the ties as the return leg.

Maccabi Tel Aviv jetted out to Slovakia this morning ahead of the first leg of their Conference League 3rd qualifying round tie against Spartak Trnava (Thursay 21:15).

Having knocked out Montenegrin side Sutjeska in the previous round, Maccabi compete with the Slovakians for the ticket to the Plaoffs.

Patrick van Leeuwen’s side will land in Bratislava before making the short trip to Trnava. The pre-match press conference is set to take place at 19:15 shortly before holding the final training session at the Anton Malitenskho stadium.

All the pictures and reports from Trnava can be viewed on the Club’s official website, App, Facebook and Insagram and Tiktok pages.

The playing and coaching staff took a break this morning from their preparations for the Conference League 3^rd qualifying round first leg against Spartak Trnava and arrived at Bloomfield, this time to open the club’s new flagship store at the Yellows’ home stadium.

after team captain Sheran Yeini joined club CEO Sharon Tammam, and Merchandise Manager Tal Mualem in cutting the ribbon, Eyal Golasa fixed the mezuzah and the players enjoyed checking out the new Megastore.

“The feeling is great to see how this club keeps growing over the years”, Matan Hozez admitted. “As a kid who grew up here, I don’t remember we had a shop and now we have three stores, which gives us a great feeling. The shirt I loved most was the Yellow one”.

On the his expectations for the forthcoming season, Hozez said: “I am feeling good and feel that we are gradually making progress. There is still room for improvement but overall we are improving”. On his second half miss against Sutjeska, Hozez revealed: “It took me three days to recover from that miss, but bigger player than me missed before and this is just part of the game. As someone who lives this game 24/7 outside the pitch as well, I can tell you that I took it really hard but I believe that I will score in the future”.

The 24-year-old home grown winger, spoke about the battle for a place in Maccabi’s squad and starting line-up: “Every season there is a battle for places here, one can never know who will get the credit because someone could always surprise. We never fear whether this player or the other joins us or not, because there is competition for places now just like in every year”.

On the defeat in the Super Cup to Maccabi Haifa he added: “The match against Maccabi Haifa was one match, but throughout an entire season we are expecting a marathon and one can’t determine who will challenge for the title and who will win it. Just like in every season, I promise you that we will be up there. Our targets throughout the  season will be to challenge for titles as I am certain we will do that this year”.

Merchandise Manager, Tal Mualem, was delighted with the opening of the new store: “It is a supreme feeling and over the past week I have been telling everyone that: ‘When I joined Maccabi Tel Aviv 10 years ago, my opening conversation with jack Angelides was about Maccabi will have a new stadium which will feature a store’. This dream has come true a decade later both in personal and in the club’s terms. You can clearly see that a lot of thought and efforts were put into this store as well as the desire to look like many big clubs across the world. I really hope that the fans will enjoy what we have to offer”.

The Conference League Playoff round draw which took place at UEFA’s Headquarters in Nyon, teamed Maccabi up with potential opponents from either Ukraine or Kazakhstan.

The winner of the tie between Ukrainian outfit Kolos Kovalivka and FC Shakhtar Karagandy of Kazakhstan will await the outcome of Maccabi’s 3rd qualifying round tie against Spartak Trnava.