Maccabi Haifa

[alanmidd 0]

They may have a new manager by the time we play them. The papers say its....

 

 

Sven Goran Eriksson! Surely not, it would be funny tho

[Gazza_8 233]

Wit?!?!?! Oh well, expect a defensive gameplan from them.

[fraser54 0]

RANGERS' next UEFA Cup opponents Maccabi Haifa were held to a 3-3 draw by Hakoach last night to stay ninth in the Israeli League

 

A 91st minute goal by substitute Dan Roman cost Maccabi two important points in its race for a fourth straight championship in a thrilling match at Kiryat Eliezer stadium.

 

Haifa seemed to be down and out at half time when they were trailing by two goals after an awful first half display. However, three outstanding goals in the space of 22 second half minutes put the hosts in the lead until the first minute of injury time.

 

Maccabi remains in ninth place in the table, having only won twice in its first five games of the season.

 

Haifa coach Roni Levy said: "The first half was a catastrophe and we paid the price for it. We need to start stringing together some wins. This was a match we had to win at home."

 

they are still a quality team though

[Whosthedado 1,540]

They've started worse than us:confused:

 

We'll still have to be at our best though, because two of our worst Euro performances in the last couple of years have been at home - Auxerre and Panithinaikos

[pete 2,499]

A win will almost guarentee Euro football after xmas. Lets hope we do it the easy way for once although i said before the tourney begun this could be the most difficult game.

[Whosthedado 1,540]

We need to watch though, even if we win the game. If memory serves me right did we not go out with 6 points from our last 'adventure' in this competition

[Trailio 0]

Yes we beat Amica Wronki(sp) and then Grazer Ak then lost the last two games to Alkmaar(sp) and Auxerre. So you are right there is no guarantee we will go through on 6 points

[calscot 0]

Part of the reason we went out is that we had a "whipping boy" in the group whom everyone beat so the win against them didn't really count appart from making it a group of 4. The results between the others contrived to put us out but 3 points out of the 9 that counted was definitely not enough, we needed 4.

 

If we'd drawn with Alkmaar it would have been interesting as the top four teams would all have had 7 points so I assume goal difference would have counted then.

 

With a closer group you'd expect to get through with 50% the points as 60% of the teams go through. But you really need at least 7 points as you could have all five teams on 6pts but you're still not guaranteed as we've seen 4 teams could have 7 points. With 8pts or more you are definitely guaranteed to go through.

 

With the group we have, a club like Rangers should be aiming for at least 3 wins and now we just need to win our home games to achieve that.

 

Maccabi and Partizan are good teams on their own patch but we should be able to beat them at a full Ibrox.

[Feriens_Tego 0]

I think this game may indeed be our toughest in the group...No pushovers.

 

:admin:

[elderslieblue 0]

The way we're leaking goals from cross-balls, I don't think we can be certain of beating anyone these days.

 

Here's hoping though.