Maccabi Tel Aviv played its first Champions League playoff match in the newly renovated Bloomfield Stadium behind closed doors, with nine players missing after testing positive for COVID-19.
It’s not often that an Israeli club, even Maccabi Tel Aviv, makes it this close to the UEFA Champions League group stage - but the Israeli champions were busy this week trying to put together a COVID-free lineup.
This past summer was different for Maccabi Tel Aviv. The previous manager, Vladimir Ivic, left after two seasons. One of Maccabi's main goals was to qualify to the UEFA Champions League, and they decided to appoint a Greek manager, Giorgos Donis. The new manager had experience in the Champions League, as he already qualified with APOEL to the group stage in 2014-15.
In the last days, Maccabi Tel Aviv had to deal with another issue. Before the previous match in the Champions League qualifiers against Dinamo Brest, it was found that midfielder Dan Glazer's brother was tested positive for COVID-19. Glazer, like all the other players, was tested negative. Over the weekend, Glazer was tested again, and this time returned a positive result. Maccabi Tel Aviv made a sequence of tests and found eight more players were infected, among them are some key players such as Enric Saborit, Nick Blackman and Dor Peretz.
Maccabi Tel Aviv lost some of their key players before the crucial match (Shaul Greenfeld/JSport)
Eventhough Salzburg was the clear favorite before the match, an even weaker Maccabi was the perfect opportunity to improve their poor qualifying record. Although the Austrians played in the group stage last year, Salzburg failed to qualify 12 times since 1995. For Jesse Marsch and his players, it was a chance to end the streak.
The game opened with a surprising strike. Salzburg pressed, but one accurate pass from Eylon Almog to Dan Bitton and the young talent sent the ball over the keeper for a 1-0 lead to Maccabi Tel Aviv at the 9th minute. The pre-match predictions suddenly became irrelevant. Maccabi Tel Aviv had a tight defensive line, while Salzburg failed to find the net in the first half. Two of their best efforts were the result of a free kick taken by of Dominik Szoboszlai, but Brazilian-Israeli goalkeeper Daniel Tenenbaum was in the right place at the right time.
At the beginning of the second half, Salzburg tried to take the match back. Their leading scorer, Patson Daka, ran into the box at the 48th minute and was tripped. Salzburg was awarded a penalty kick, Szoboszlai took it, and his shot hit the post before going in. After his narrow misses in the first half, the Hungarian was the player to equalize the score.
One of the players that really made a difference in the second half was Sékou Koïta. The player from Mali was subbed in at the half time, and in the 57th minute sneaked past the defensive line and sent a decent cross to Masaya Okugawa. The 24-year-old winger scored his debut goal in the European competitions, and Salzburg took the lead, 2-1.
Before the final whistle, Salzburg made their last effort. A sequence short passes between Daka, Koïta and Noah Okafor ended with a shot from outside the box. Tenenbaum missed the ball, but the woodwork saved Maccabi from a giving up a third away goal.
Dominik Szoboszlai, converted a penatly after a few efforts in the first half (Shaul Greenfeld/JSport)
Despite winning an away match, Salzburg missed the opportunity seal the qualifying deal against Maccabi's relatively weak squad. The narrow win can make the second leg at Salzburg much more difficult, although the two away goals provide a certain degree of confidence. Maccabi Tel Aviv still has a chance to make an upset and join the long list of teams that eliminated Salzburg in the playoffs.
