The scene a week ago was taken by Haitian centre-forward Frantzdy Pierrot, who contributed a brace to his Maccabi Haifa side’s vigorous comeback win over Dejan Stankovic’s Red Star. Everything happened in Israel: a total of five goals between two teams who both appeared to be healthy, especially in terms of scoring. Both the men led by Barak Bakhar and those coached by the former Lazio and Inter midfielder confirmed their offensive vocation, finding the path to goal with some ease. The 3-2 win at the Sammy Ofer Stadium gives the green-and-whites a small but significant advantage ahead of the return leg, and they will now need only not to lose to qualify for the Champions League group stage: a wait that has lasted 12 years.
Licking their wounds instead is the Belgrade outfit. The Belgrade side surprisingly risks missing the most important appointment of the season, despite the fact that, before the collapse in Haifa, they had won seven consecutive league and qualifying rounds and had many more minutes in their legs than the Israelis.
Since last year in the European cups, goals scored away from home do not count for anything, which is why Red Star will have to win by at least two goals to overturn Maccabi. Otherwise it will be elimination. Stankovic will demand more attention in defence: before last Wednesday’s game his team had kept their goal unbeaten for four games in a row.
©️Ansafoto
The Prediction
Maccabi Haifa have less quality and experience than the Serbs, but in this adventure they have already been able to overturn a prediction, winning 4-0 at home to Olympiacos in the second qualifying round. In Belgrade, however, it is never easy to play and the green-and-whites will almost certainly have to do so in a bedlam. This time Red Star are likely to avoid defeat, but it will in all likelihood be another rather eventful match, with at least three goals in total. And it would be no surprise if the total number of goals in the second half is higher than in the first. The extra time hypothesis, finally, is not at all remote.
The Red Star v Maccabi Haifa likely line-up
RED STAR (4-4-2): Borjan; Erakovic, Milunovic, Dragovic, Rodic; Kangwa, Kanga, Bukari, Ivanic; Pesic, Katai.
MACCABI HAIFA (4-3-3): Cohen; Sundgren, Planic, Goldberg, Cornud; Chery, Lavi, Mohamed; Haziza, Pierrot, David.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 2-1