Struggling Maccabi

Maccabi Tel-Aviv are embarking on only their 2nd ever champions league group stage campaign and its looking so far that their 2nd campaign will be tougher than their first.

Maccabi reached the group stage for the first time in 2004-05 and were pitted alongside three former European winners in the group (Ajax, Bayern Munich and Juventus). On that ocasion they managed to pick up 4 points. They beat Ajax and drew with Juventus both at home.

This campaign however they aren't playing their home games in Tel-Aviv. Despite previously hosting champions league group games, UEFA has deemed the Bloomfield stadium too small to host games so Maccabi have taken temporary residence in the new Sammy Ofer stadium up the road in Haifa. This is another disadvantage when it comes to trying to negotiate a difficult group. Maccabi for home games domestically are backed by a partisan crowd that can intimate visiting teams much like the Turkish, Greek and Eastern European teams are backed by a vociferous crowd. Moving the games to Haifa will take a bit away from the crowd as well the team not being used to playing on the surface.

A quick look back through previous seasons shows that Maccabi's home ground of Bloomfield was used when their arch-rivals Hapoel qualified in 2010-11. It was also used when Maccabi Haifa reached the group stage the previous season although they went on the lose all group games without scoring. So Bloomfield has previously hosted games at this stage which is rather surprising that it's not hosting games now. The Sammy Ofer stadium is a newly built ground for Maccabi Haifa and its a modern 30,000 seater stadium. The Bloomfield stadium is a proper old school ground of just under 15,000 and quiet atmospheric despite the lack of a roof.

As for the team well it looks like Maccabi have it all to do to even get 3rd place in the group. In a group with Chelsea, Dynamo Kyiv and Porto it was always going to be tough but even more so after two defeats. In those defeats they have struggled. The 4-0 defeat away to Chelsea was a tough introduction to the group but last night's 2-0 defeat at "home" to Dynamo Kyiv showed how much Tel-Aviv need to catch up on. The Dynamo defense wasn't tested enough by the Maccabi attack and they looked toothless up front. Their main goal threat Eran Zahavi wasn't able to impose himself on the game with a lack of service and possession wasn't maintained enough. Just the lack of penetration allowed Dynamo to build from the back. The goals were well taken especially Junior Moraes' goal and Dynamo have joined Porto and Chelsea in the tussle for qualification leaving Maccabi at the bottom.
Up next for them is back-to-back games against Porto, it just doesn't get any easier for the Israelis.