Maccabi Haifa fell 1-0 at Sheriff Tiraspol in Moldova to begin the first leg of 2nd round of UEFA Champions League qualifying on the wrong foot. Amine Dalal scored the lone goal of the contest in the 28th minute when he slotted the ball behind keeper Itamar Nitzan to record the victory.

The Greens will host the return leg on Wednesday August 2nd at Sammy Ofer Stadium as Messay Dego’s squad will look to wipe out the minimal defeat and advance to the third round where they will face the winner of the HŠK Zrinjski/ŠK Slovan Bratislava tie. Should they lose then they will drop into the third round of UEFA Conference League qualifying.

“We knew that this was going to be a game against a very good home team that knows how to defend,” Dego said following the game. “We created 3-4 100% chances to score but we didn’t and we gave up a goal that we shouldn’t have. This wasn’t simple away match and we did everything to come back. Now we will head to home our stadium where we will have our fans who were missing in this game and I hope that we will do what we need to next week.”