Having secured a pleasing 1-0 victory at home – although it wasn’t actually at home as such as Maccabi were forced to play at an alternative location – in the first-leg, Maccabi Tel Aviv find themselves in a solid position ahead of the second-leg. With their opponents failing to register away from home, any goal the Israeli’s find here essentially counts as double and so it’s safe to say that the Greek hosts really do have their work cut out. Particularly since they offered little in the way of both resistance and attacking intent last week.
In truth, Maccabi’s performance last week was a rather commanding one and, if anything, the Israeli side will perhaps be disappointed that they didn’t come away with a greater lead. However, such a showing was promising and they ought to feel confident of building on their lead here. Given that they looked a cut above their opponents in the first-leg, it’s surprising that the visitors are as big as 13/8 in the betting and, at such a price, they’re well worth supporting.
It’s fair to say that Maccabi Tel Aviv come into this match with their tails up; not only did they win well against this opposition last week but they’ve now won seven on the spin. With this in mind, Jordi Cruyff’s men should be buzzing with confidence and rightly so. Again, not only have they won seven in a row but they’ve done so in very impressive fashion, particularly from a defensive point of view, as they’ve kept six clean sheets during that time. What’s more, in only one of those seven matches have they failed to score more than once. With the way things are going right now, it’s really not difficult to see Cruyff’s side extending their run on Thursday night.
Panionios had also been in decent form ahead of the first-leg last week as they’d won two on the bounce; however, they were very much second best against Maccabi and it’s hard to see quite how they’re going to turn this one around, even on their home patch. The visitors are adept at keeping teams at bay while they simply showed more in the way of forward potency last week. Speaking of attacking threat, that is something that Panionios showed little of in the first-leg and it is in the final third where they’re likely to fall down again. The Greek outfit managed just a single shot on target last week and, even in front of their own fans, a major transformation doesn’t appear to be all that likely.
As mentioned above, Maccabi might have been a little bit disappointed not to have scored further goals last week but, with the counter-attack likely to be on here, it’s very easy to see them adding to their tally and, therefore, putting this one to bed once and for all. A similar defensive performance should see the Israeli’s keep things nice and tight before they look to kill the tie off at the other end.
All things considered, there was an apparent disparity in quality between these two sides last week and such a difference is once again expected to surface in this fixture. Quite frankly, based on both recent form and what we saw from them in the first-leg, Maccabi look far too big in the betting and they’re worth backing to beat Panionios for a second time.
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