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Maccabi Haifa will host Sabah at the Sammy Ofer Stadium on Thursday in the first leg of their 2024-25 UEFA Europa Conference League second-round qualifying clash. The home side missed out on the Israeli Premier League last season for the first time since the 2019-20 campaign and will now have to settle for a spot in the Conference League qualifiers.
They returned to competitive action last weekend with a 3-0 win over Hapoel Be'er Sheva in the League Cup qualification playoffs with Dean David opening the scoring in the first half before Gadi Kinda and Dia Saba came off the bench to seal the win.
Sabah enjoyed yet another positive league campaign last season finishing third in the Azerbaijan Premier League after finishing second in the previous campaign. They enjoyed a solid pre-season campaign and will be looking to carry that momentum into competitive action this week.
The visitors faced RFS at this stage of the qualifiers last season picking up a dominant 4-1 aggregate victory and will hope they can find similar luck here.
Maccabi Haifa vs Sabah Head-to-Head and Key Numbers
- Thursday's game will mark the first-ever competitive meeting between Maccabi Haifa and Sabah.
- The hosts have had six meetings against Azerbaijani opposition. They have won four of those games, drawn once and lost the other.
- Maccabi Haifa were the joint-higest-scoring side in the Israeli top-flight last season with a goal tally of 75.
- Sabah have kept clean sheets in four of their last five competitive outings.
- Eight of Bayquşlar's 12 league defeats last season came on the road.
Maccabi Haifa vs Sabah Prediction
Maccabi Haifa have won three of their last four competitive games and have lost just two of their last 10. Their latest result ended a run of back-to-back defeats on home turf and they will now be looking to kick on from that this week.
Sabah have won six of their last seven matches and have lost just three of their last 12. They have performed fairly well on the road of late but could see defeat against significantly stronger opposition this Thursday.
Prediction: Maccabi Haifa 2-0 Sabah
Maccabi Haifa vs Sabah Betting Tips
Tip 1 - Result: Maccabi Haifa
Tip 2 - Goals - Over/under 2.5 - Under 2.5 goals (Six of the visitors' last eight matches have produced fewer than 2.5 goals)
Tip 3 - Both teams to score: NO (Both sides have found the back of the net in just one of Maccabi Haifa's last five home matches)
