Maccabi Tel Aviv – Sivasspor will play on Thursday, December 10, starting with 20:00 in the last round of Group I of the Europa League. The match will be played at Bloomfield Stadium and will be led by Andris Treimanis, a referee from Latvia.
The only direct confrontation is at the end of October. Then, the team from Israel won 2-1 even in Turkey. It should be noted that Sivasspor led by Kayode in the 55th minute, but the red card received by Camara 12 minutes later completely changed the game in favor of the visiting group.
The host team started this group very well, with two victories in the first two rounds, but then they did not defeat anyone in the next 3 stages, during which time they met twice the winner of the group, Villarreal. So, Maccabi Tel Aviv is on the 2nd place with a total of 8 points. It is noteworthy that the team led by the Greek Donis is undefeated at home in the matches played in this group of the Europa League. The Tel Aviv group defeated Qarabag 1-0 and drew 1-1 with Villarreal.
On the other hand, the Turkish team was defeated twice by Villarreal, but managed to prevail in both matches with Qarabag, 2-0 at home, 3-2 away. So, Sivasspor collected 6 points in the first 5 rounds and is only one distance away from this opponent. It is noteworthy that the team led by Albayrak does not go through an impressive form, only two victories in the last 11 official matches.
The situation in the group is clear. Villarreal will finish in first place, Qarabag is eliminated, and Maccabi Tel Aviv and Sivasspor are in a direct fight for the second position, the Turks needing a success to reach the European spring. For either of these two groups, qualifying for the next phase of the Europa League would be a remarkable performance. Most likely we will witness an intense match, in which both coaches will most likely not take great risks in the first part of the game. if we are talking about a favorite, this would be the host team. Maccabi has good performances on its own field and does not have to force because a point would bring it the 2nd place in the group.
Maccabi Tel Aviv, average of 2.4 goals in the Europa League group;
Sivasspor have conceded at least one goal in 11 of the last 12 official matches;
At least 5 goals were scored in both games played “outside” by Sivasspor in this group;
Maccabi Tel Aviv: Tenenbaum; Kandil, Tibi, Hernandez, Saborit; Biton, Glazer, Peretz, Cohen; Golasa, Pesic
Sivasspor: Samassa; Osmanpasa, Appindangoye, Camara, Erdal; Cofie, Fajr; Oztekin, Yalcin, Gradel; Yatabare
PREDICTION: Maccabi Tel Aviv to win @ 2,10
