Every Israeli football team dreams of making it to the main draw of a European competition and Maccabi Haifa have a chance of making that dream a reality for the 8th time in the club's history as they face Romanian club Astra Giurgiu in a two legged tie, which is their last obstacle before reaching the main group-stage draw of the UEFA Europa League. Haifa host Astra, who came 4th in the Romanian Premier League last season and this season are currently leading the table, tonight (Thursday) at 19:30 in the first leg of the tie which is probably Haifa's manager Arik Benado's biggest challenge since becoming manager mid-way through last season.
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Gustavo Boccoli and Arik Benado at the press conference (m haifa) |
Haifa reached the play-off round by beating Latvian side Ventspils 3-0 on aggregate in the last round whilst Astra got to the play-offs after beating Trencin of Slovakia 5-3 over 2 legs in the previous round.
"We are hoping to play a good game against Haifa", said Astra's manager Daniel Isaila at last night's press conference, "We are very glad to be here. We have watched some of Haifa's previous games and we now realize how good they are. We will try to surprise and stop Haifa from playing it's usual way. Just like Haifa we also have a good team and we have come with a big appetite in order to leave Israel with a good result to take into the second leg".
Haifa midfielder Gustavo Boccoli was also present at the press conference and he also had what to say about the game: "The Romanian teams that we play against are always good, but we know what we have to do in order to play well at home. It is an important game for the club and each player knows he has to give all he can regardless of how many minutes he gets on the pitch. We know it won't be easy and if we don't come ready our opponents will punish us".
11,000 Haifa fans are expected tot turn up to cheer their team on to victory an Haifa initiated a plan hours before the match that allows anyone to get a ticket to the game for just 10nis as long as they come to the stadium in a green shirt.
Haifa's expected lineup:
GK: Bojan Saronov, DF: Eyal Meshumar, Dekel Keinan, Taleb Twatiha, Edin Cocalic, MF: Gustavo Boccoli, Yaniv Katan (captain), Ruben Rayos, Hen Ezra, Alon Turgeman, FW: Shimon Abuhatzira.
(You can watch the game live on Sport1 from 19:30)
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