Maccabi Haifa beat Red Star Belgrade 2:3 on Wednesday in the first of two meetings in the Champions League qualifiers when the Serbian champions arrived in Israel without their leading striker, Milan Pavkov, who the club informed us is suffering from a virus that prevents him from taking part in the team’s games in recent times.
This evening (Friday) it was announced in Serbia that Pavkov may be available to Diane Stankovic and Red Star Belgrade in the decisive rematch on Tuesday, at the end of which it will be determined which of the champions of Serbia and Israel will participate in the Champions League, but even if the striker is fit for the meeting – his head may be elsewhere, because according to The reports in Serbia are on the verge of moving to Saudi Arabia.
In “Mozart Sport” and in the Serbian “Kourir” it was announced that the deal will be implemented only after the match against Maccabi Haifa, but Pavkov has also not trained recently and therefore is not at the peak of fitness, and for the Haifaites it may be good news to know that he is expected to leave anyway Red Star Belgrade next week.
Pavkov this season scored five goals in four games in the Serbian league and in the Champions League qualifiers he scored 0:2 against Pionik in the third qualifying round. The one who removed him from the Red Star lineup is Alexander Peshich, ex-Maccabi Tel Aviv who also scored against Maccabi Haifa this week in Carmel. Pavkov scored 14 goals last season and assisted another 8 in 43 games in all competitions. According to reports, he will be sold for around 2.5 million euros and is expected to earn around 1 million euros each season.
Earlier today it was announced in Serbia that against Maccabi Haifa there is expected to be a full stadium in Belgrade and that over 35 thousand tickets have been sold for the match.