Maccabi Tel Aviv vs Basel Preview and Prediction – 25/08/15
Champions League preview – Maccabi Tel Aviv vs Basel prediction
Maccabi Tel Aviv are without midfielder Nosa Igiebor, who is struggling with injury and defender Eli Dasa, who is serving a suspension in European competition. However, neither player featured in the first leg of the tie and therefore, Maccabi Tel Aviv should go with the same starting XI that got a 2-2 draw in Switzerland.
Basel still have a few players missing through injury, including Ivan Ivanov, Zdravko Kuzmanovic, Behrang Safari and Veljko Simic. Striker Marco Janko has also joined that list, plus the Swiss team also have to deal with the suspension of defensive midfielder Taulant Xhaka. Shkelzen Gashi could come in up-front in place of Janko, if he doesn’t make it and Phillip Degen could come in to the defence if Safari is not fit.
Possible Line-ups
Maccabi Tel Aviv: 4-3-3 formation: Pablo; Shpungin, Ben Haim, Tibi, Ben Harush; Rikan, Alberman, Igiebor; Ben Haim II, Ben Basat, Zahavi
Basel: 4-4-2 formation: Vaclik; Lang, Hoegh, Suchy, Degen; Embolo, El Nenny, Zuffi, Bjarnsson; Delagado, Gashi
- Maccabi Tel Aviv have won 5, drawn 2 and lost 3 of their last 10 matches
- Basel have won 8 and drawn 1 of their last 10 matches
- Over the course of their previous 10 matches, Maccabi Tel Aviv have scored an average of 2.2 goals and conceded an average of 1.4 goals per game
- Over the course of their previous 10 matches, Basel have scored an average of 2.7 goals and conceded an average of 0.8 goals per game
- There have been over 2.5 goals scored in 8 of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s previous 10 matches
- There have been over 2.5 goals scored in 8 of Basel’s previous 10 matches
- Maccabi have yet to win a game against Swiss opposition in 7 attempts
An equaliser, deep in to injury time in the first leg, has handed the advantage to Maccabi ahead of the return match in Israel. The scorer of that goal, Eran Zahavi, is currently the top goal scorer in this season’s UEFA Champions League qualifying competition with six goals and will be looking to add to that total in this match.
With 2 away goals to their name, Maccabi know that either a 0-0 or 1-1 draw, will be good enough to send them through to the group stages of the Champions League. However, Basel are on a 12 match unbeaten run in all competitions, winning 11 of them and will remain confident they have what it takes to do the job in the second leg.
Maccabi got their league season underway with a 3-2 home win on the weekend but did lose their previous home Champions League qualifying match to Viktoria Plzen 2-1 and a repeat of that scoreline, would see them dismissed.
It’s going to be a very close call and there should be goals, which could take the match in to extra-time.
We say: Draw and both teams to score at 10/3 with Bet365
What are your predictions?