Europe champions league:- Maccabi Haifa vs olympiakos piraeus stats, prediction ,head to head, lineups,livestream and ground
Europe champions league: In the first leg of their Champions League qualifying round, Maccabi Haifa will host Olympiacos at the Sammy Ofer Stadium in Haifa on Wednesday
The Israeli champions are set to face Olympiacos, who are coming off a last place finish in the Champions league. Haifa haven’t qualified for the Champions League in three years and lost to Hapeol in the Israeli Super Cup last weekend.
Haifa and Olympiacos have faced off twice in the group stage of the Champions League. The games were in 2002-03. Haifa won the first game 3-0 with a hat-trick by Yakubu Ayegbeni, but Olympiacos won the second game 3-3.
A midfielder for Maccabi Haifa is said to have picked up an injury in the Israeli Super Cup, but later confirmed that he’ll be out for three to four weeks with a thigh problem.
Australia international Nikita Rukavytsya, who had ten goals last season, will lead the Green’s line for the upcoming fixture.
Olympiacos comes into the game off a turbulent pre-season campaign. They are returning with key players Youssef El-Arabi and Tiquinho, and will depend on them to produce the goods for their team.
Maccabi Haifa are predicted to play with 4-3-3 formation. Josh Cohen, Daniel Sundgren, Bogdam Planic and Rami Gershon will be at the back; Neta Lavi, Saikou Touray, Mohammed Abu Fani and Mavis Tchibota in midfield; Nikita Rukavytya, Omer Atzili up front.
The Olympiacos lineup consisted of Tomas Vaclik in goal; Sime Vrsaljko, Konstantinos Manolas, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, and Oleg Reabciuk as the defensive line; Andreas Bouchalakis and Ibrahim Amadou Kane occupying the central midfield positions; Joao Carvalho and Mathieu Valbuena on the wings; Youssef El-Arabi as their striker.
Chances of a goal range from high to low. Olympiacos has more experience than Haifa, but Haifa are not an inferior team. The two teams are evenly matched, so a tie is likely. With everything to play for in the second leg of the game, it is hard to predict the final outcome.
Maccabi Haifa have had mixed results in their UEFA Champions League Qualifiers so far, but they will be coming into this match as favorites. Olympiacos are no strangers to the competition, but they have been struggling recently and will likely need a good result here if they hope to make it past the group stage. With that said, I predict that Maccabi Haifa will win this match comfortably.