Maccabi Haifa and Crvena Zvezda Belgrade meet on Wednesday 17 August in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League play-offs, a match that will be broadcast live on Digi Sport 2, Prima Sport 2 and Orange Sport 2.

Tip of the dayPhoto: Profimedia

Israeli champions Maccabi Haifa produced one of the surprises in the second qualifying round of the Champions League, knocking out Greek champions Olympiakos (1-1 at home, then a shocking 4-0 away!) before progressing to the third round of preliminary round Apollo Limassol , champion of Cyprus (4-0 at home and 0-2 away).

The Greens are coached by Barak Bakhar (five league titles in the last seven years, four with Hapoel Be’er Sheva and one with Maccabi Haifa), and one of the team’s key players is Serbian Bogdan Planic, who previously played for FCSB.

In 2020, after Gigi Bekali took a pay cut due to the pandemic, the Serbian won a FIFA court case and was awarded €170,000 in compensation, leaving Maccabi Haifa without a contract on a contract of €380,000 per season, and will now sign a contract extension for annual salary of 500,000 euros!

Steaua-Roch entered the competition directly in the third preliminary round of the Champions League, where they destroyed the Armenian champions, Pyunik Yerevan (who eliminated CFR Cluj in the first preliminary round), 5-0 at home and 2-0 away!

In the domestic race, Crvena Zvezda, coached by their former great Dejan Stankovic (who went on to have a career in Italy, with Lazio and Inter Milan), lead after five stages with as many wins and with an impressive goal difference, 21-1!

Crvena Zvezda (Belgrade) is the most successful club in Serbia (33 titles and 26 national cups (in particular in the People’s Republic of Serbia, Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro) and the only one in the country to have a European trophy – the European Champions Cup in 1991 (the competition later became the Champions League ); also in 1991, he also won the Intercontinental Cup, with both international trophies won with Miodrag Belodedic as a regular player!

Crvena Zvezda also played in the European Super Cup final, three CCE semi-finals, the Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final and the UEFA Cup final!

Superbet offers odds of 1.45 for a win for Maccabi Haifa or a draw for Crvena Zvezda.

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Maccabi Haifa win or draw 1.45

* the tariff is valid at the time of publication of the article