Summary: Beitar Jerusalem - Maccabi Haifa 2:0/Sport1
In the middle of last November, Belgian midfielder Brecht Diagra was interviewed and said: "I think Ghent has the best chance of winning the championship."
Diagra, who played for the team in 2013-2020, saw the former team draw 1:1 with the leader Union Saint-Gilloise and although it trailed by 7 points, he was convinced.
The team from Flanders had only one loss, they played good football and the future bodes well.
Three months later, Ghent is already ranked sixth and has 6 losses.
She counts 5 consecutive league games without a win, she gained a point from a possible 15 in them and she still hasn't won in 2024.
At this time, she was also eliminated from the cup and with this headache she will come to the away game against Maccabi Haifa on Thursday in Budapest (10:00 p.m., Sport2), as part of the Conference League.
From the deep crisis in the Belgian team, another success story may (and perhaps should) be born in Maccabi Haifa's excellent season so far.
Scored 29 goals in the first half of the season, and were sold in January.
Urban and Cowpers/GettyImages, Seskim Photo/MB Media
Everything went wrong in the harsh month of January.
Hugo Cowpers, who scored 17 goals in half a season in all formats, was sold to Chicago from the MLS for 12 million euros and Gift Urban, who found the net 12 times, moved to Lyon for the same amount.
18-year-old Malik Popana moved to the same Lyon for 17 million euros and the money was invested in new talents who are still acclimatizing, have not started producing and are suffering from injuries.
And there is Tariq Tisudali.
The Dutch-Moroccan striker has had a great start to the season and has given Gent chiefs enough confidence to sell Urban and Cowpers.
He scored doubles this season against Maccabi Tel Aviv and Standard Liege, defeated Charleroi and Genk and reached 15 goals in all competitions before going to the African Championship.
Tissudaly played 17 minutes against Zambia in the group stage and sat on the bench in the other three matches of the Moroccan national team.
After scoring 5 goals in December, in January his momentum reversed.
The African Championship hurt him a lot and with the losses to Anderlecht and Circle Bruges in the last week and a half, he doesn't look good.
The continental championships did not do well either for defender Tsuyoshi Watanabe and midfielder Yoon-Suk Hong - both key players in Ghent who spent the month of January in the Asian Championship.
Watanabe played only 8 minutes for the Japanese national team and Hong returned just a few days ago and showed a poor ability against Circle Bruges.
"Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong," said last night the former footballer and current commentator, Wim de Koenig, "What happened to Ghent is like Murphy's Law. Ghent's national team players returned disappointed from the tournaments and did not look good in the games that have passed since then. They played below their usual level ".
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At the beginning of the week, even coach VanHazebroek admitted: "We really don't know what to do"/GettyImages, Isosport/MB Media
If the sales of the stars and the decline in fitness of those who remain are not enough, there are also the injuries.
Captain Sven Coomes, defenders Norio Fortuna and Jordan Tornariga and attacking midfielder Andrew Julsager are all injured.
Even January signings Momodo Lamin Sonko and Daisuke Yokota are ineligible.
With this baggage, Gannett will show up for the game against Maccabi Haifa, which due to the circumstances is a little less interesting to her when the problems in the league are piling up.
After the loss to Circle Bruges at the beginning of the week, coach Hein VanHazebroek said: "We really don't know what to do. If I want to rest the players, we have to play against Maccabi Haifa with the youth. If I go up in the strongest lineup, I take a risk that some players won't be Qualified for the game against Ofen on Sunday."
Gent impressed in the first part of the season and the ease with which they achieved the 0:2 over Maccabi Tel Aviv in October, made it clear that this is a strong team.
But since then a lot of things have changed and Maccabi Haifa will meet a team in crisis, for the time being also not finding solutions to get out of it.
For the Israeli champion, this is a golden opportunity to pass the Belgians and advance to the round of 16 of the Conference League.
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