Five and a half years have passed since Maccabi Haifa’s last away win against Maccabi Tel Aviv, when Eliran Atar and Gary Kagelmacher won for the Greens. The last victory in Bloomfield against the Yellows was almost 11 years ago, even then the result was 0: 2 from Tomer Hemed. In twenty games in which Maccabi Tel Aviv hosted in all settings (some in Netanya), the balance – 15 wins, four draws, four draws and a single victory for the Greens – passed from that game.
Tonight (Monday, 20:30, live broadcast on 5 SPORT) Maccabi Haifa has the opportunity to write a new chapter in the long history between the clubs and win in Bloomfield, after they managed to get the monkey off their backs in the second round and defeated the Yellows in a home game with a dramatic turnaround. “A victory against Maccabi Tel Aviv in Bloomfield is a statement, but as in the last game, we will have to do it on the pitch and not in talk. “Maccabi Tel Aviv is an excellent team and when you go up to the lawn the table has no weight,” said Maccabi Haifa.
Following Hapoel Beer Sheva’s loss of points last night, Maccabi Haifa’s tonight victory will increase the gap at the top to nine points, and will probably take Maccabi Tel Aviv out of the championship race once and for all. Is a significant step towards a second consecutive championship.
Noble Omar, who joined Maccabi Haifa last January and is expected to receive a hostile reception from the host crowd, is looking for a debut goal against the ex. The Greens hope he will return to the pace of conquests he was in before the injury. Maccabi Haifa mentioned that they won the previous game against Maccabi Tel Aviv thanks to the bench – with the rise of Goodsway Donio, San Menachem and Ben Shehar who made the change. For the past three years and tonight, Bachar has been hoping to get output from them.
Who will meet the sworn rival for the first time is Mikael Alphonse. The right-back, who arrived in January, took a permanent place in Bachar’s lineup and completed six times in 90 minutes. Tonight, 3,000 green fans will accompany the team and the club on their way to breaking records in everything related to the crowd after announcing last night a sold-out in the league game against Bnei Sakhnin and in the semi-final of the State Cup against Hapoel Haifa. Carmel expects to receive additional tickets that the rival’s fans did not purchase.
Estimated composition: Josh Cohen; Mikael Alphonse, Bogdan Planic, Sean Goldberg, Jose Rodriguez; Ali Muhammad, Muhammad Abu Fani, Charon Shari; Noble Omar, Dolev Haziza, Dean David.