“I would like to address you with a personal message. I am asking you not to arrive at the stadium or anywhere near the stadium. I am asking you not to arrive at Kiryat Shalom or anywhere near Kiryat Shalom. This request is in order to protect and look after your health. As you all know, Covid19 is widely spreading these days, and one fan who tested positive for Covid19 was outside the stadium in one of our recent matches.”

“In addition, incidents which occurred outside the stadium didn’t help either. I am asking you to watch the game at home and enjoy it with us – your health is a lot more important than any victory and any championship celebration. I am pleading with you to follow the guidelines of the Health Ministry and the Police”

Tenenbaum was asked about the forthcoming championship and replied: “We still need one more point to win the title but we are clearly delighted. We had a good game and will celebrate properly after the next few games”. 

On his performance he added: “This is the best season of my career, I would like to reach as high and as far as possible and still want to achieve more things, to continue this way and to train hard every day”.

“I always dreamed of being a first choice keeper and to continue making progress. Every day I am going what needs to be done in order to fulfill my dreams” he summed up.

Andre Gerlades revealed the secret behind Maccabi’s success this season: We are playing like a family. Everyone are together in defense and in attack. This is the key. To be united until the end and to have an approach of ‘game by game’.

The Portuguese right-back added: “We are trying not to concede goals. Clearly this is something which is not entirely possible, but our record is not bad”.

On what it feels like to play behind closed doors: “It is difficult to play with no fans, but you learn how to adapt and deal with it. In the first couple of games it was tough to get used to. But this is what we have for now and we must get used to play like that”.

Schahar Piven (19) Eylon Almog (44) and Yonatan Cohen (80) scored the goals for Vladimir Ivic’s side which remains top of the table 12 points ahead of Maccabi Haifa that beat Hapoel Tel Aviv 3-1 on the night. With four matches left until the end of the season and the championship all but won, Maccabi needs only a solitary point to celebrate a 24th league title. This could be achieved on Saturday night against the arch city rivals as Maccabi hosts Hapoel at Bloomfield stadium in four-days- time.

Seventeen minutes from the start and after a good spell of the hosts, Maccabi charged for a counter attack as Dor Peretz ghosted into the area and was unmarked to head Nick Blackman’s pinpoint cross towards goal, only to see Jasmin Buric push the ball out for a corner. Eylon Almog’s resulting corner curled beyond the reach of Haifa’s keeper and defense, before falling  to Schahar Piven whose low left-foot drive found the back of the net. The 24-year-old central defender who scored his senior debut goal in the Toto Cup last season, scored his debut league goal.

Tomer Altman, who is on loan at Haifa tested Daniel Tenenbaum in the 27th minute with a fierce left foot drive which was pushed for a corner. While another former Maccabi player, Dor Malul forced Tenenbaum to block with his feet on 43.  
Within a minute however, Tenenbaum was instrumental at the opposite end of the pitch as he set up Eylon Almog for Maccabi’s second goal. The 25-year-old Brazilian custodian grabbed the ball in his own area and released Almog who raced from the halfway line, shrugged off Miki Sirostein and with only Buric to beat scored his second goal in three days.

In the 59th minute Tenenbaum was forced to a double save as he first saved Nes Zamir’s powerful drive before denying Saar Fadida who threatened to blast in the rebound.
A minute later Blackman’s cross found Geraldes at the far post only to see the Portuguese full back hook his shot over the bar. This was Blackman’s final contribution on the night as he came off together with Almog allowing Yonatan Cohen and Itay Schechter to lead the attack for the final half hour.

Eyal Golasa and Jair Amador replaced Peretz and Saborit in the 70th minute. Nine minutes later, Maccabi were awarded a penalty as Cohen and Schechter combined well on the edge iof the area before Eli Balilti brought down Schechter in the box. Cohen stepped up and blasted in the spot kick to make it 3-0 and score his 11th goal of the season.

Parfait Guiagon who made his senior debut appearance in the derby stepping onto the pitch for the final seconds of the derby, replaced Avi Rikan for the final eight minutes. Liran Liani’s final whistle together with news that Hapoel Tel Aviv lost to Maccabi Haifa – sent Maccabi’s players to the dressing room knowing they have a tasty derby on their hands on Saturday.

Preview

Vladimir Ivic made five changes to the side which beat Hapoel Tel Aviv 2-0 in Saturday’s derby as he kept the three central defenders formation with Maor Kandil and Jair Amador dropping to the bench. While Andre Gerlades replaced Kandil at the right wing-back role, Ofir Davidzada occupied the same role on the left with Enric Saborit pushing into the middle together with Sheran Yeini and Schahar Piven. With Dan Glazer supplying the cover at the heart of midfield, Dor Peretz, who made a second half substitute appearance in the derby, was named alongside Avi Rikana giving Eyal Golasa a much needed rest on the bench.

Eylon Almog whose contribution to the derby victory with a goal and an assist, earned him enough credit to be named amongst the starters together with Nick Blackman – with Yonatan Cohen and Itay Schechter waiting for a chance amongst the substitutes.

 

 

118 league meetings took place so far between the two sides of which Maccabi won 53, Hapoel Haifa won 30 and 35 matches ended in a draw. The goal tally in those matches clearly favors Maccabi and currently stands on 183-112.

Maccabi Tel Aviv – The most successful team at Sammy Ofer.

Ever since the Sammy Ofer stadium was opened at the start of the 2014/15 season, it hosted 203 league matches. Maccabi’s success rate against Hapoel Haifa at the Sammy Ofer stadium is 57.1% (3 wins, 3 draws and a defeat).

Maccabi’s success rate against Maccabi Haifa at the Haifa stadium is 73.3% (6 wins and 4 draws). If one adds the radius matches against Beitar Jerusalem hosted at Sammy Ofer – Maccabi’s success rate at the Haifa stadium in league matches stands on 60%.

This is the best success rate of all the 19 clubs who played league matches at the stadium – including the two Haifa clubs (Maccabi Haifa 53% and Hapoel Haifa 43%).

The balance in the Playoff against Hapoel Haifa

Tuesday’s match will be the 5^th time both teams meet in the playoff.

Just like this time round, all the previous encounters took place in the top playoff: A 4-0 victory in the 2000/01 season. A 2-1 defeat and a 2-2 draw in the 2017/18 playoff and a 2-0 victory in the opening playoff match on May 30^th.

Nes Zamir’s 93^rd minute equalizer on MD23 when Hapoel Haifa hosted Maccabi in the regular season on February 8^th (1-1 draw) – was the latest goal Maccabi conceded this season.

Will the league title be secured?

While Maccabi Tel Aviv face Hapoel Haifa at Sammy Ofer, second place Maccabi Haifa which are 12 points adrift travel to Bloomfield stadium and face Hapoel Tel Aviv. With 18 league titles won after the State of Israel was founded, Maccabi Tel Aviv could celebrate their 24^th league title in the event they collect more points than Maccabi Haifa on the night.

Together with Hapoel Jerusalem and Hapoel Petah Tikva who took part in 3 crowning matches each – Hapoel Haifa is the team Maccabi won the most championships against.

Previous league titles secured against Hapoel Haifa: A 4-0 win at the Maccabiya stadium in the penultimate match of the 1949/50 season. A 3-1 victory at the Kiryat Haim stadium two matches before the end of the 1953/54 season and a 2-0 victory at Bloomfield on the final day of the 1978/79 season.

Maccabi never won a league title at Sammy Ofer stadium which has never hosted a crowning match in its’ short history.

Two days after recording a 2-0 win in the Tel Aviv derby, Maccabi coach Vladimir Ivic spoke ahead of Tuesday’s game against Hapoel Haifa at Sammy Ofer which will begin the second round of the Playoff. 

With a 12-point-lead at the top of the table, Maccabi travel to Sammy Ofer and face a side they beat 2-0 on May 30th.

“We have a game against Hapoel Haifa which is the second one against them in the playoff. The first game wasn’t an easy, the result was a 2-0 win but it was a difficullt match. They created some chances and proved after the game they are prepared for this stage of the competition as they only lost just once and that was against us. We know what we want and we know what we need to do – to be ready and give the maximum for this game”.

“Just like every game and every time, we must remain focused from the beginning until the end and our target is as always – three points. Hapoel Haifa have their goal, so do we, but I think that our target is bigger. It will be an interesting game and a tough one like the previous match and we will see what happens”.

Rikan: We want to take a significant step towards our target

Avi Rikan spoke ahead of Tuesday’s game against Hapoel Haifa as the veteran midfilder who scored the opener in Saturday’s 2-0 derby victory over Hapoel Tel Aviv said:”We are expecting a tough match against a side which made our lives difficult earlier this season. We have confidence after the victory in our previous game but once again there is a tough 90 minutes ahead of us tomorrow. We have to be ready, prepare as much as possible in the two days we had between the two matches as we want to take a significant step towards our target”.

Maccabi Tel Aviv beat Hapoel Tel Aviv 2-0 last night and completed a third derby victory of the season. After the match we turned to the history books to understand how Maccabi’s current dominance is extraordinary and discovered a few interesting statistics which are worth a mention.

A record unbeaten run in derbies

Let us begin with Maccabi’s most significant historic achievement following last night’s result: the 2-0 victory set an all-time record of 11 derby matches with a defeat for Maccabi. Maccabi’s previous record (10 unbeaten matches) was achieved in April 1994.

Hapoel’s unbeaten record in derbies also stands on 11 matchers (March 1984) which means Maccabi could set a new record when both teams meet on Saturday.

This is the fourth time Maccabi won three matches in one season (previously happened in 1992/93, 2003/04 and 2012/13). On the other hand, Hapoel never managed to beat Maccabi three times in one season.

Should Maccabi beat Hapoel on Saturday, a new record of four derby victories in one season will be set.

The goal difference after three league derbies this season currently stands on 8-0 which equals the highest record of 9-1 set in the 1992/93 season.

The three derby victories recorded this season increased Maccabi’s tally to 8 more than their opponents in the all-time record – with 54 derby wins as opposed to Hapoel’s 46. This is the highest lead Maccabi had over Hapoel since the turn of the Millennium and only 2 less than the all-time record of 10.

Eylon Almog’s achievement

Having scored a 95^th minute goal in the first derby of the season (3-0), Eylon Almog became the first ever Maccabi player to score injury time goals in the Tel Aviv derby.

Avi Rikan is another player who likes scoring in Tel Aviv derbies, as the 31-year-old midfielder scored the opener last night – just as he did in the first derby of the season on MD12 last December.

Rikan also scored the opening goal in the 4-3 victory over Maccabi Haifa  on MD17 in January this year.

Sheran Yeini made his 24^th appearance in derby matches. Only four Maccabi former players played in more Tel Aviv derbies than Yeini: Miko Belo (33), Avi Nimni and Benny Tabak (29 each) and Eli Driks (27).