Maccabi Tel Aviv has a long history when it comes to European competitions.
They lead the other Israeli clubs in the UEFA rankings and, coming into this season, they thought that reaching the Europa Conference League group stage would be an easy mission. A year ago, in the play-offs, they qualified after defeating Kazakhstan’s Shakhter Karagandy.
#UECL Pre-game by @yossport1 outside Bloomfield Stadium 🎤
— BabaGol (@BabaGol_) August 18, 2022
🎥 @shaulig pic.twitter.com/RhWu9OYnGq
This year, they’ve not been so lucky - their opponents are OGC Nice.
The French side have barely played in Europe in recent years - their last appearance was in the Europa League group stage two years ago. Their most recent match, a 1-0 defeat to Hapoel Be’er Sheva in Israel.
Two years later, Nice are back in the country, and aiming higher. They’ve been active in the transfer market, signing Kasper Schmeichel from Leicester, and Welsh international Aaron Ramsey, and are highly rated back home.
Kaper Schmeichel, one of Nice’s biggest transfers this summer (Shaul Greenfeld)
On the pitch, the French side’s strength was clear. In the first half, they hit six shots on target, to Maccabi’s zero. Crucially, for the Israelis, none of these resulted in a goal.
After the break, Maccabi were clearly looking for a solution, and in the 69th minute that happened. Eran Zahavi was taken off, with Stipe Perica taking his place. Zahavi is an icon in Israel, but wasn’t fit enough to finish the match, and was struggling.
And within five minutes, that substitution had paid off. Perica saw himself in on goal, with just Schmeichel in front of him. A cheeky chip over the keeper saw the home side take the lead.
The goal changed things, and, while Nice no longer looked dominant, Maccabi pushed towards goal.
But the French side held on, and Maccabi know that, tonight, they made a huge step towards the group stage of the Europa Conference League.
Edited by Alex Smith
All the photos by Shaul Greenfeld
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