The biggest game that Israeli football has to offer, between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa, will take place tonight (Wednesday, 20:45) at Bloomfield Stadium (live broadcast on5SPORT), And it’s time to dive into the numbers behind the encounter.
– Since the first game between the two, held in January 1932 (Maccabi Tel Aviv won 2: 4), 201 meetings in history have been held in all settings. The balance: 82 wins for Tel Aviv, 64 for Haifa and 55 draws. The goal difference is 262: 291 For the benefit of the Yellows.
– As part of the league, 164 meetings were held – the league meeting that plays the most. The balance is deep on 68 yellow wins, 48 greens and 48 draws. Goal difference: 203: 237 for Maccabi Tel Aviv.
In the last seven and a half seasons (since the 2013/14 season), the balance is exceptional in favor of Tel Aviv – 19 wins, 7 draws and a single loss.
– Maccabi Tel Aviv with a record streak of 14 league games without a loss against Maccabi Haifa, since January 2017 (10 wins, 4 draws). This is the second time that Maccabi Tel Aviv achieves a streak of 14 games against the Greens, together with the streak between March 2013 May 2016. Maccabi Haifa’s record streak over the Yellows is 10 games (April 2006 – April 2009).
– Maccabi Tel Aviv has won all the last 8 games against Haifa in Bloomfield. Only against Sakhnin does it have a longer streak of consecutive victories in Bloomfield (10 consecutive victories).
– Two landmarks took place in six seasons in the 17th round. The first in 2014/15, then the first meeting between the teams in Sami Ofer and ended in a 0: 1 victory from a penalty kick by Eran Zehavi. The second, also at the Haifa Stadium, was the biggest 3: 4 from last season.
In the eight seasons, the teams finished in the first two places at the end of the season. In 6 of them, Maccabi Tel Aviv was the champion and Haifa its runner-up (1995, 1996, 2003, 2013, 2019, 2020), compared to 2 in which squirrels swung the plate (1994, 2004).
– As the municipal coach of Kiryat Shmona, Hapoel Beer Sheva and Maccabi Haifa, Barak Bachar’s balance against Maccabi Tel Aviv stands at 8 wins, 9 draws and 11 losses to the yellow rival.
– The green striker and the league’s top scorer this season, Nikita Rokavica, has scored 8 goals against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the last six seasons, the most of the league’s players in this period. League goals against them – Zahi Armeli 15 goals.
– Exactly 50 players played in the uniforms of the two teams: from the current staff of Maccabi Tel Aviv, Itai Schechter and Eyal Golsa wore green. And at Maccabi Haifa model 2020/21, Jose Rodriguez and Omar Atzili played for the sworn rival.
This season, for the first time since 2011/12, the teams meet when Maccabi Haifa has a points advantage over Maccabi Tel Aviv. On the eve of the game in the first round, the gap was 4 points (Haifa had a game missing). The gap on the eve of the second meeting this season is 8 points in favor Haifa.
– Maccabi Haifa closed the highest points gap in history on the way to the championship – 13 gap points for Betar Jerusalem closed in the 1983/84 season with a green championship.
– Maccabi Tel Aviv closed the second largest gap – in the 2002/03 season then Maccabi Haifa had a 9 point advantage over the Yellows on the eve of the meeting between them (round 14 of 33 rounds). Maccabi Tel Aviv then won 2: 3 in Kiryat Eliezer, which shrank to 6 points on the way to a yellow championship.
– Both teams come into the game in swing, having won and each scored 3 goals. Ten times in the past, there was a meeting between Maccabi and Haifa when the teams arrived after a victory in which they won at least the same amount, and the balance in them: 6 wins for Tel Aviv, 3 draws and one victory for Haifa.
* Numbers courtesy of Yaron Mashaal
