Maccabi Haifa\u2019s Champions League dreams for this coming season came to an end as they fell to Young Boys 3-0 (3-0 aggregate) in Bern, Switzerland. Following a 0-0 draw in the first leg of the playoff round tie, the Greens had plenty of chances early and often but could not convert as the hosts took full advantage to score a trio of goals and ease into the continent\u2019s most prestigious competition.<\/p>\n
Messay Dego\u2019s squad will play in the Europa League group stages as their opponents will be drawn on Friday September 1st at 14:00 Israel time. Some of the Greens potential foes will include Liverpool, West Ham, Marseille, Villareal, Bayer Leverkusen, Roma and Sporing Lisbon. <\/p>\n
Both sides went right to work from the opening whistle as Young Boys threatened the Maccabi Haifa goal from the get go but Dean David with a tremendous chance in front of the goal saw his ball just deflect off the right post as the game remained goalless early on. However, it was the hosts that broke the ice as Meshack Elia delivered a pinpoint perfect cross off the right flank that Cedric Itten headed home with authority to give Young Boys a 1-0 lead in the 23rd minute.<\/p>\n
Just minutes later things went from bad to worse for the Greens when Elia once again put the ball in the box for his intended target Itten but Abdoulaye Seck\u2019s clearance deflected into his own goal and by keeper Itamar Nitzan as Young Boys doubled their lead. Frantzdy Pierrot tried to pull a goal back for Haifa but his attempt went squarely off the bar as the Greens went into the break down 2-0. <\/p>\n
Haifa came out of the break with renewed energy, but no less than a minute into the second half, Young Boys added yet another goal to their tally as Filip Ugrinic\u2019s laser beam went behind a helpless Nitzan for a 3-0 advantage. Dego made wholesale changes and introduced the likes of Dia Saba, Lior Refaleov and Erik Shuranov, however, none could make a dent in the Young Boys lead as they cruised into the Champions League group stages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maccabi Haifa\u2019s Champions League dreams for this coming season came to an end as they fell to Young Boys 3-0 (3-0 aggregate) in Bern, Switzerland. Following a 0-0 draw in the first leg of the playoff round tie, the Greens had plenty of chances early and often but could not convert as the hosts took […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":94230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[80,5793],"class_list":["post-94229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-israel-2","tag-maccabi-haifa","tag-young-boys","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n