Last year Slavia was laughed at in the Czech Republic for losing to Haifa, this year Maccabi celebrates qualification to the Champions League

Last year, Slavia travelled to Haifa in the Conference Europa League group with the aim of winning clearly and returning to the top of the table, but lost in Israel, for which they received a lot of criticism on social media. Less than a year later, Haifa qualified for the Champions League.

Maccabi’s path to the group was not easy. First, it beat the experienced Olympiakos Piraeus 5-1, giving the Greek champion a four, then it beat Cyprus’ Apollon 4-0 at home, and in the rematch it lost 0-2.

In the play-offs, Haifa was waiting for the experienced Serbian champion Crvena Zvezda Belgrade. In the home game, Haifa turned the second half from 1:2 to 3:2, but in the rematch they were down until the 90th minute, then the home defender scored an own goal and the favourite didn’t have time to react.

Maccabi’s quality was already evident last year. In the Conference League group stage, they drew with future finalists Feyenoord, and even beat Slavia at home in the third round to reach the quarter-finals.

The Sevilla team came into the match upset by a ten-day old derby defeat to Sparta (0:1), and after a 0:1 loss to Maccabi, they received an avalanche of ridicule and criticism on social media. Then they lost important points in the league to Ceske Budejovice (2:2).

Maccabi’s improvement is also visible in the price of the squad. Since the first encounter with Slavia, it has almost doubled the value of its players, while the mainstays of striker Godsway Donyoh and midfielder José Rodriguez have left.

Now, after gaining experience in the Conference Europa League, Maccabi is looking forward to the Champions League. They have made it through to the group stage for the third time in their history and will go into Thursday’s draw from the fourth basket alongside Viktoria Plzen.

Source: UEFA