Israeli soccer will have a pair of representatives playing in Europe this season as Maccabi Haifa will feature in the UEFA Europa League while Maccabi Tel Aviv will take part in the UEFA Conference League as both clubs found out who they would be facing in the group stages which begin later this month.<\/p>\n
The Greens had a chance to punch their ticket to the Champions League group stages for the second time in as many seasons but just came up short to Young Boys from Switzerland in the playoff round, however, the continent\u2019s second best competition is nevertheless an excellent consolation prize for Messay Dego\u2019s squad. Maccabi Haifa will play a trio of teams in Group F which includes Villarreal from Spain, Greek side Panathinaikos and Ligue 1 outfit Stade Rennais.<\/p>\n
As for the yellow-and-blue, a return to Europe\u2019s third best competition is the best that Robbie Keane\u2019s club could accomplish as they had finished in third place in domestic league play last season which allowed Maccabi the opportunity to feature once again in the Conference League. The three clubs that will be waiting for Keane\u2019s crew include Belgium side Gent, Zorya Luhansk from Ukraine and Icelandic squad Breidablik.<\/p>\n
For Maccabi Haifa, La Liga side Villarreal will no doubt be the favorites to win their group and are a very familiar side to Israeli soccer aficionados over the past number of years having played Maccabi Tel Aviv twice in Europa League group stage action and Hapoel Beer Sheva in the Conference League just last season. The Spanish side is coached by Quique Setien who has also been in charge of Barcelona in the past while Haifa will need to keep a close eye on 22-year old winger Alex Baena who has been compared to the likes of Isco and scored a game winner against Beer Sheva last season. <\/p>\n
Panathinaikos is always going to be a tough draw for their \u201cGreen brothers\u201d as the Greek outfit will have huge fan support both at home and at Sammy Ofer Stadium. While Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv have both played Panathinaikos is Europa League action this will be the first time that Haifa will face the Athens based team. Ivan Jovanovic is on the bench for PAO after having been in charge of the South Africa National Team and will now have his team in the group stages of a European competition for the first time since the 2016\/17 campaign. <\/p>\n
Stade Rennais will be playing in Europe for the 6th straight season and will be a handful for Haifa as the French squad is well tested in continental competition. Bench boss Bruno G\u00e9n\u00e9sio has been in charge of Stade Rennais since the 2021 season and will have a familiar player on his roster for the clashes with the Greens in Fabian Rieder. The Swiss midfielder had just featured for Young Boys against Haifa in the playoff round and was immediately sold right after the second leg to the Stade Rennais for a reported 15 million Euros.<\/p>\n
Just like Haifa, Maccabi Tel Aviv will play three teams that they have never faced before starting off with Belgium stalwarts Gent. Israeli midfielder Omri Gandelman recently moved to the Belgium outfit and becomes yet another Sabra in a long line of players who have featured for the club. Yones Malede, Hatem Al Hamed, Rami Gershon, Kenny Saief and Ofir Davidzada are just a number of Israelis who played for head coach Hein Vanhaezebrouck\u2019s club which will be making their 5th straight appearance in continental play. Last season, Gent advanced all the way to the quarterfinals of the Conference League where they ultimately succumbed to West Ham who were the eventual competition champions. <\/p>\n
Zorya Luhansk may have not played Maccabi Tel Aviv in the past but they do have a familiar face who has featured for the yellow-and-blue in the past in striker Eduardo Guerrero who was part of the Israeli squad between 2019-2023 which included a number of loan stints. Nenad Lalatovi\u0107 is the head coach having taken over from another Maccabi connection in Patrick van Leeuwen who had served as the club\u2019s head coach as well as the performance director as well. <\/p>\n
Brei\u00f0ablik will be the first ever Icelandic club to make an appearance in the group stages of a European competition as Maccabi will take part in their history as their first ever opponents in continental play. \u00d3skar Hrafn \u00deorvaldsson has been in charge since 2020 which saw the club get close a few times to playing in Europe prior to this season as the former journalist finally was able to take his team to the promised land. In fact, Brei\u00f0ablik began this season\u2019s European campaign in Champions League qualifying and ended it with a ticket in the Conference League. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israeli soccer will have a pair of representatives playing in Europe this season as Maccabi Haifa will feature in the UEFA Europa League while Maccabi Tel Aviv will take part in the UEFA Conference League as both clubs found out who they would be facing in the group stages which begin later this month. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":94392,"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":[80,4],"class_list":["post-94390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-israel-2","tag-maccabi-haifa","tag-maccabi-tel-aviv","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n