Israeli soccer clubs who will be participating in European competitions this coming season found out over the weekend who they will be facing in their respective qualifying tournaments.Maccabi Tel Aviv, Maccabi Haifa, Maccabi Petah Tikva and Hapoel Beersheba will all look to wind their way through the qualifying rounds in order to punch their tickets to the brand-new league phase of the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League.The new league phase consists of 36 teams for each competition and teams will be drawn against eight different opponents, with four games being played at home and four away for the Champions League and Europa League, while the Conference League teams will play against six different opponents.At the end of the league, teams 1-8 will automatically qualify for the round-of-16 while teams 9-24 will face each other in a knockout playoff round to advance, while teams 25-36 are eliminated from all competitions.In the knockout phase, all ties are contested both home and away culminating in a one-match final.
Maccabi Tel Aviv will participate in Champions League qualifying and is looking to advance to the league phase of the prestigious and lucrative competition for the first time since 2015, where it played the likes of Chelsea, Dynamo Kyiv and Porto in the group stage (and lost all six games while scoring one goal).The yellow-and-blue will begin qualifying in the second round where it will play the winner of the first-round game between Virtus A.C. 1964 from San Marino and Fotbal Club FCSB of Romania, with the formerly known Steaua București being a heavy favorite to advance and play Maccabi.
First match of the second round for Maccabi
The first match of the second round for Maccabi will be away from home July 23 to 24 with the home leg the following week, however due to the ongoing war that game will also take place on the road.Already, 29 teams have qualified for the league phase with seven places being up for grabs through the qualifying competition – five being through the champions route and two via the league route.Fotbal Club FCSB was founded in 1947 and plays its games at the National Stadium in Bucharest. FCSB is considered to be the biggest club in Romania and has won the most league championships (27) and cups (24). In 1985/86, it won the European Championship before it was renamed the Champions League, when it defeated Barcelona on penalties and was also the runner-up to AC Milan in 1988/89.Last season, FCSB won the Romanian championship after an eight-year drought, when it took the league by three points over second place Cluj.Maccabi Haifa will take on a relative newcomer to European soccer in FC Sabah from Azerbaijan in Conference League second round qualifying with the home leg taking place July 25 and the return leg slated for the next week in Baku. Sabah plays at the 13,000 seat Bank Respublika Arena, and the game there will not be an easy task for the Greens.Sabah was established seven years ago and quickly moved into the first division, where it has been one of the best teams in the country. Last season, the club finished in third place and the year before it ended the campaign in second place. That allowed it to compete in Europe for the first time, where it made it to the third round of Conference League qualifying before being eliminated by Partizan Belgrade.Hapoel Beersheba will also play in Conference League qualifying against Bulgarian outfit PFC Cherno More Varna, which finished last season in third place of its domestic league, just one point away from CSKA Sofia and 13 points off of first place Ludogorets.Cherno has captured four league titles over the course of its 111-year history, with the most recent coming way back in 1938, with its last Cup and Super Cup having been won in 2015 which led to Europa League qualifying the following season.In 2008 to 2009, the Bulgarian side played against Maccabi Netanya in the UEFA Cup qualifiers and passed the Diamond City squad 3-1 on aggregate in the two games that they played.Maccabi Petah Tikva last played in the group stages of European competition back in the 2005 and 2006 UEFA Cup and the wait to feature in continental play may need to wait yet for another season as it will face Portuguese mainstays FC Braga, which finished in fourth place in domestic league action and plays in the 30,000-seat Municipal Stadium.Daniel Sousa was recently appointed as the club’s head coach after having worked for many years under André Villas-Boas and worked at Porto, Chelsea, Tottenham and Marseille among others before heading out on his own when he managed Gil Vincente in 2022 and 2023 and Arouca this past season.