Maccabi Tel Aviv has a coefficient of 8.075 and will host the second leg of the Second Qualifying Round against the third highest coefficient for an unseeded club, ETO Gyor of Hungary who has a 3.850.
I had no clue that Sousa was Macabbi's manager, and that Cruyff was director, maybe not THE johan cruyff, but jordi was still a good player. Anyway, Macabbi needs to get some of those serious loans or transfers again if they want to make a big impact in Europe. Not having Enyeama in goal will hurt and Earnshaw did well last season. They should make the group stage but it would sure be nice to have them compete for knock out round, been to long for Israeli club not to...
What makes you think they can make the Group Stage when they could have to face one or two clubs with a coefficient over four times their's in order to get there?
The first leg will be Wednesday at 2:30 P.M. USA Eastern and the odds are even, which favors Maccabi Tel Aviv because they are away.
ETO Gyor 0-2 Maccabi Tel Aviv was the first leg final score. Barak Itzhaki scored in the 76th minute. ETO Gyor made consecutive saves in the 87th minute. Gal Alberman scored in the 90+4th minute. UEFA says Maccabi Tel Aviv dominated the statistics with more shots (23 to 6), more shots on target (11 to 1), more corner kicks (13 to 3), more dangerous attacks (35 to 16), and fewer yellow cards (5 to 2).
http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsle...476/match=2011687/postmatch/report/index.html is titled "Maccabi take charge against Gyor."
Maccabi Tel Aviv got drawn against the club with by far the best coefficient for Qualifying Round 3, Basel of Switzerland.
Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-1 ETO Gyor was today's final score. Tal Ben Haim (25th minute) and Eran Zahavi (79th minute) scored for Maccabi Tel Aviv. Leandro Martinez scored in the 86th minute to prevent a shutout. Maccabi Tel Aviv had more shots on target (8 to 4), more corner kicks (6 to 2), fewer yellow cards (3 to 1, there were no red cards), and fewer fouls committed (16 to 9).
The first leg in Switzerland will be Tuesday 30 July at 1:00 P.M. USA Eastern. I used six betting odds to make probabilities for the first leg, and I'm really surprised Basel isn't favored by more: Basel win: 58.6% Draw: 23.0% Maccabi Tel Aviv win: 17.4%
http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsle...477/match=2011709/postmatch/report/index.html is a recap that says Maccabi Tel Aviv's best chance hit the crossbar, but the statistics says Maccabi Tel Aviv kept it respectable with 2 shots on target (Basel had 3) and 4 corner kicks (Basel had 8) while the clubs had 10 fouls each.
I saw this match through an online stream. Basel completely and thoroughly dominated the first half. It should have been much worse than 1-0 at half-time. Additionally, the referee helped Maccabi out since there were two plays (a foul and a handball) which could have been penalties for Basel. Maccabi improved greatly in the second half and dominated the last 25 or so minutes, including the Prica shot hitting the crossbar. There were also some missed headers on dead ball opportunities.
http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsle...477/match=2011709/postmatch/quotes/index.html is titled "Prica rues Maccabi miss at Basel."
Maccabi Tel Aviv came back from down 3-0 to get a 3-3 draw and 0.125 coefficient points for Israel. Basel won the aggregate 4-3 and I will continue discussing Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa League topic. http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsle...ex.html#maccabi+revival+comes+late+halt+basel is UEFA's recap of today's game.