(Summary courtesy of Sport1)
Maccabi Haifa were very happy the day after the great victory over Apollon Limassol in the Champions League qualifiers. Coach Barak Becher, as usual, did not lower the players to the ground and on Saturday preparations will begin for the rematch, to which the Greens arrive with a very promising advance of 0:4.
Dolev Haziza, who is carrying two yellow cards from the matches against Olympiakos, is not expected to take part in the game in Cyprus, as another card will cause his absence from the first game in the playoffs, which will probably be against Red Star Belgrade.
The coach stated after the game at the press conference that Maccabi Haifa will get to the rematch in a serious and urgent manner, but everyone is clear that this is an opportunity for him to distribute minutes and load. The coach is expected to rotate the lineup, although it is not yet clear how deep it will be.
In any case, there will be changes from the last two games when Omar Atzili, Mohamed Abu Fani and Mavis Chibuta, who came off the bench in the fourth, are in the 11 picture, as well as Nikita Rukavica, San Menachem and other players.
Meanwhile, Ben Shahr gradually returned to training with the team. As for Mahmoud Jaber, it is still unclear when he will be fit to return to training, and the club is closely monitoring the pace of the midfielder’s recovery. The Cypriots allocated 2,000 tickets to Maccabi Haifa fans, and although the match was almost decided thanks to the result in Sami Ofer, the club estimates that about 2,000 fans will indeed arrive at the GSP Stadium.