Maccabi Haifa take on the visitors Olympiacos Piraeus in the first leg of quarterfinals of UEFA Champions League qualification. The match will be played on Wednesday, July 20th at Sammy Ofer Stadium (Haifa).
"The Greens from Carmel" are quoted, of course, not as high as their colleagues that compete in basketball. But in football there are worthy indicators, which are worth 14 league titles (as well as 5 cups). Maccabi managed to take the "gold" in the last draw, beating all the competitors led by Hapoel (Beersheba). There are certain successes in European competitions, including in the Champions League, where they managed to reach the group stage twice. In the last draw, Maccabi lost to the first qualifying opponent – modest Kairat. But in the Conference League it was possible to get to the main group stage.
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Olympiacos confirms its status as the main symbol of Greek club football. The "Legend", by the way, is also forced to fight for the fans with their basketball section. But in football, it turned out to achieve serious results: 47 times the championship title was brought to Piraeus. Including, three in a row already since 2020. Once again, in the spring, they managed to break away from all our pursuers, led by PAOK, without any particular problems. In European competition, however, the “Oli” does not show anything. Yes, from time to time it was possible to break into the main round of the Champions League - this was the case, for example, in 2020, when it even managed to take 3rd place, and then reach the 1/8 finals in the Europa League. But a year ago, the Greeks lost to Ludogorets in qualifying. As a result, they moved to the Europa League, where they again qualified for the playoffs, but then there was Atalanta. Oli was able to win in Bergamo, but in the decisive match Malinovsky and the company won 3-0.
In 2002, the clubs played in the group stage of the Champions League. Then Maccabi collected 4 points in head-to-head meetings (3-0 at home, 3-3 away), and eventually got ahead of Olympiacos in the dispute for 3rd place. Maccabi is not bad, but it seems that there are more trump cards in Olympiacos now. We dare to assume that the Greeks will win.
Prediction for the match: Olympiacos to win.
