Maccabi Haifa, the Israeli champions, have twice played in the Champions League group stage. Yet, it was never so close as it was last night.
In terms of distance, it's the first time since 1994 that Maccabi Haifa have hosted a decisive Champions League match in its home city. In 2002, when they made it to the group stage, Maccabi had to host their home games abroad, due the security situation in Israel at the time.
In 2009, they played at the Ramat Gan Stadium, as their old home stadium was not eligible to host matches.
Wednesday night was the first time the Sammy Ofer Stadium, where Maccabi have played for the last eight years, has played host to a Champions League play-off tie.
We're LIVE from Sammy Ofer stadium. A pre-game report by our own @yossport1 before the #UCL playoff 1st leg match betwewn Maccabi Haifa and Crvena Zvezda
— BabaGol (@BabaGol_) August 17, 2022
🎥 @shaulig pic.twitter.com/yZnZjXI2Hu
🏟 Sammy Ofer Stadium from @shaulig's camera 😍📸 pic.twitter.com/13sH9uzjYl
— BabaGol (@BabaGol_) August 17, 2022
They lined up against one of toughest opponents they could’ve chosen - Crvena Zvezda. In their last two play-offs, the Serbian champions defeated Red Bull Salzburg, and Young Boys, and were looking to repeat their past successes at this stage.
The visitors were shocked by the atmosphere in the ground. They know the feeling of playing in front of passionate fans, but in the first minutes of the game they struggled to fight through the wall of sound.
Maccabi, meanwhile, pressed forward towards the opposition goal and, 18 minutes in, Crvena’s confused defence were easily passed, allowing Frantzdy Pierrot to put the hosts ahead.
But from here, the Israelis made a mistake, as they failed to use their dominance to score again. Against an experienced opposition, that could prove fatal.
And it did. Less than 10 minutes later, Aleksandar Pešić struck a long-range effort past Josh Cohen in goal. Pesic has himself played in Israel in the past, a season with Maccabi Tel Aviv, and he clearly took the chance to score against his old time rivals.
In the 39th minute, another great chance for Crvena Zvezda ended with a goal. Osman Bukari gave the ball to Guélor Kanga, who shot clearly into the net.
Dejan Stankovic is on the Simeone discipline.
— Uri Levy (@Levyninho) August 17, 2022
📸 @shaulig pic.twitter.com/95bTEEFbmH
Barak Bakhar, Maccabi’s manager, has coached in the Champions League playoffs in the past. Six years ago, with Hapoel Be'er Sheva, his team lost 5-2 away to Celtic. In the return leg, they were only one goal away from equalising the score with a 2-0 win. One year later, still in Hapoel Be'er Sheva, this time against Maribor, he missed out on the group stage on away goals. On such a special day, Bakhar easily passes on his own attitude to the squad. It only took six minutes of the second half for his side to score again - Pierrot was in the right position to head the ball into the net.
And it wouldn’t be the last. Just past the hour mark, Tjaronn Chery took the ball outside the box and put an elegant shot past Milan Borjan - Maccabi were back in control.
Whilst the Serbs had a few chances to tie the game up, they couldn’t handle the growing noise inside the stadium. Maccabi will now travel to Belgrade next week with a 3-2 lead, hoping to qualify for the Champions League group stage for a third time.
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