Maccabi Tel Aviv will host on Thursday FK Suduva in the first leg of the Europa League 3rd qualifying round tie, with the return clash to be played in Lithuania a week later. The winners of the tie will face the winners of the tie between Croatia’s Dinamo Zagreb and Ferencvaros of Hungary to determine which outfit will advance to the competition’s group stage.

The draw which set the next phase of the competition was held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland on Monday. Should Maccabi beat Suduva, the next European outing will be at the Netanya stadium on August 22nd with the return leg the following week (August 29th).

Full draw:

Maccabi Tel Aviv or FK Suduva v. Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) or Ferencvaros (Hungary)

Red Star Belgrade (Serbia) or FC Copenhagen (Denmark) v. Riga FC (Latvia) or HJK Helsinki (Finland)

CFR Cluj (Romania) or Celtic (Scotland) v. Sheriff Tiraspol (Moldova) or AIK (Sweden)

Ararat-Armenia or FC Saburtalo (Georgia) v. Dudelange (Luxembourg) or Nomme Kalju (Estonia)

Eitan Tibi, who spent seven seasons in Yellow and Blue since joining from Kiryat Shmona in August 2012, will remain a Maccabi player having signed a new 2-year-deal.

Tibi, who will return to wear the number 18 shirt, told the club’s official website: “I am staying at the Yellow home. After several years here, and a very long journey with quite a few achievements, I am delighted to be staying – hoping to enjoy much more success together in the future”.

Maccabi Tel Aviv CEO, Ben Mansford, added: “It gives me great pleasure to announce that Eitan Tibi will continue his time with Maccabi! Eitan has been an important part of what has been achieved at the Club in recent seasons and played his part in helping the team to a number of records last season. It was always our intention to have Eitan sign a new contract and everyone is delighted he will stay in the yellow of Maccabi. As with all of the contracts we have concluded this season, none of them would have been possible without the superb support of Mitch and I would like to thank Mitch for his constant support and guidance”.

In his seven seasons at Maccabi, Tibi, has won seven trophies and has a collection which includes 4 league titles (2012/13, 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2018/19), 1 State Cup (2014/15) and 2 Toto Cups (2017/18 and 2018/19). As a member of the squad which reached the Europa League round of 32 in the 2013/14 season, Tibi helped Maccabi win a historic treble in 2014/15 and reached the Champions League group stage the following season. Tibi’s 60 appearances for Maccabi in European competitions makes him the all-time record holder in Europe and with a total of 289 appearances in all competitions for Maccabi, he captures the 21^st position in the all-time appearance record of the club. 

Maccabi Tel Aviv will host FK Suduva of Lithuania in the first leg of the Europa League third preliminary round on August 8 at Netanya Stadium, kickoff 20:30. Tickets are available beginning Thursday, Aug 1 at 20:00, with priority afforded to 2018/19 season ticket holders and “Forever” and “Forever Plus” members until Sunday, Aug 4.; thereafter, remaining tickets will be available for purchase by the general public.

Tickets are also on sale through Leaan Ticket Agency at 42 Frishman Street, Tel Aviv. Telephone *8780, via Leaan’s web site, and via the Maccabi Tel Aviv web site.

Please note that “Forever Plus” supporters club members who did not use their coupon code to obtain tickets for the home fixture against Cluj, will be able to use the same code to get tickets for this fixture against Suduva.

Fans who join Maccabi Tel Aviv’s official supporters’ club, FOREVER Plus by 16:00 on Wednesday, Aug 7 must utilize their coupon for this fixture. The coupon will be sent to new Forever Plus members up to 48 hours after enrollment. Those enrolling after Aug 7 at 16:00 will not be able to use the coupon for any other European fixture.

If after securing membership you encounter problems, please contact the supporters’ club via forever@mtafc.com

Ticket Prices

* Home printing of tickets is recommended.

* Tickets bought in advance will cost less than on match day.

* Upper East section – unreserved, Lower East section – reserved, West section 106-109 – reserved.

Leaan Ticket Office, Telephone, Website – 65 NIS

Match day at the stadium box office – 70 NIS

 

Silver section

Leaan ticket office, telephone, website – 150 NIS

Match day at the stadium box office – 200 NIS

Ticket collection

Tickets may be collected at the Leaan Ticket Office located at 42 Frishman Street, Tel Aviv between Sunday-Thursday 09:00-19:00, Friday 09:00-13:30.

On the day of the match, tickets may be collected at the stadium box office beginning three hours before kickoff and until 45 minutes after play has begun.

Aug 5: Europa League playoff draw – Ahead of the clash with Lithuania’s FK Suduva in the Europa League third qualifying round, Maccabi will discover their potential final obstacle en route to the competition’s group stage. Maccabi will not be seeded in the draw even if they beat the Lithuanian champions, who hail from the town of Marijampole. They will, of course, have to beat the Lithuanians before they face opponents knocked out in the Champions League third qualifying round.

Back to school with the champions, the scratch-card campaign continues – Hold on tight dear parents, the summer holidays will soon be over and our kids will be back at school on Sept. 1. In order to prepare them as champions for the classroom challenges in the year ahead, we have prepared scratch cards that will offer hundreds of prizes for every purchase of over 99 NIS at official Maccabi Tel Aviv outlets. Match day tickets, team shirts, scarves, balls and many other Maccabi items are up for grabs. The prizes can be won at our outlets at Kiryat Shalom, Dizengoff Center and Kanyon Hazahav in Rishon Letzion. 

Aug 8: Maccabi Tel Aviv v FK Suduva – The first leg of the Europa League third qualifying round tie with the Lithuanian champions will take place at Netanya, kickoff at 20:30. The hosts in yellow will aim to gain an advantage ahead of the return leg which will take place a week later.

Aug 15: FK Suduva v Maccabi Tel Aviv – Europa League second leg in Marijampole, Lithuania.

Aug 22: Europa League group stage playoff , first leg – In the event that Maccabi overcome FK Suduva over both legs, they will face their next opponents, to be determined on Aug 5 (see above) in the competition a week later.

Aug 24: TASE Premier League kicks off – There is always a buzz at the start of every season and no less so this time when the new campaign gets under way and Maccabi begin the defence of their league title. The first fixture will be away to league newcomers Ness Ziona. The exact time and date are still to be determined.

Although the match didn’t end the way many wanted it to and despite the result, CEO Ben Mansford wanted to acknowledge the over 12,000 supporters who filled the Netanya Stadium and cheered on the players throughout the 90 minutes:

Dor Micha, the Maccabi Tel Aviv midfielder looked back at his squad’s 2:2 draw as the Yellow & Blue bowed out of the Champions League:

“This is very disappointing for everyone and we wanted to continue to the Champions League as we could have gotten to the group stages but now we have to play in the Europa League.”

Penalty that changed it all:
“It’s a failure for us that we didn’t pass this round and without the penalty who knows how we would have done in this game, but we didn’t deserve to win.”

Getting better as the season continues:
“This time last year we also weren’t that good and helpfully we will get better as time goes on.”

His fitness:
“This is the first time that I played 90 minutes and I’ll be fine.”

Fan support:
“Now our main goal is to advance to the Europe League and we can do that if the fans come out and help us like today.”

Not advancing to the Champions League:
“It’s very painful and I won’t lie to you. Hopefully we will have other opportunities to do that in the future.”

Vladimir Ivic, the Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach spoke about his side’s 2:2 draw (3:2 aggregate) following the contest:

“It’s a disappointment. We opened the game the best way and then we gave up a goal two minutes late. I think we played better than the first game and we created chances, more than the first game but after their second goal it was hard to score three. We had a few chances but this is football. We have a week to get ready for our next game in Europe.”

Giving the maximum:
“A lot of times the better team doesn’t win the game. Cluj scored one goal more than us and they went to the next stage. This was just our second game and I believe the players gave the maximum at this moment.”

Working harder:
“It’s my responsibility that we didn’t pass this stage and we can now look back at what we could have done better and we can see what we have to fix and work harder.”

Could have done better:
“The result shows we aren’t ready enough. We worked 5 weeks in training camp but after these two games we missed something that we could have done better.”