Summary: Gent - Maccabi Haifa 1:1/Sport1
Maccabi Haifa did its part last night (Wednesday) when it finished in Belgium with a 1:1 against Gent and thanks to the draw result it achieved 1:2 in the summary of the games and qualified for the round of 16 of the Conference League, but if it had won it would have meant that Israel would have risen to 15th place in the ranking, It means that, at least temporarily, it overtakes Norway and takes the place that guarantees another representative in the Champions League qualifiers in the summer of 2025.
The draw means that Israel remains in 16th place, but since Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv will also participate in the next round and each of them will play at least two more times, Israel has a realistic chance to screw up in places 12 to 15 that improve the number and quality of tickets for the European factories.
As you know, regardless of stage qualification or not, in each game in the Conference League a draw is worth a quarter of a point and a win is worth half a ranking point - so in the optimal scenario even a single draw of one of them and three losses may be enough to achieve the goal.
A help from Ajax against Budo Glimt/GettyImages wouldn't hurt
This is also the reason why Norway crossed their fingers for Gent yesterday, knowing that their loss would jump Israel to 15th place at least temporarily.
The Belgians equalized against Maccabi Haifa and took a critical quarter of a ranking point for the State of Israel, but now it is the turn of the fans and the people of Israeli football to keep their fingers crossed for the teams that meet Bodo Glimt and the Norwegian homeland tonight.
If both lose, Norway will be left without any European representative this season, and therefore a draw by Maccabi Tel Aviv or Maccabi Haifa in one of the round of 16 games will complete the turnaround and bring us closer to securing another representative in the Champions League.
It should be noted that a draw in one of them means equality between Israel and Norway in the ranking, but Israel has an advantage due to the fact that it has accumulated more ranking points this season than Norway (8 points for Israel, 7 for Norway).
Budo Glimt will host Ajax after losing twice in extra time in Amsterdam and saying goodbye to it 2:2 last week, while Molde already led 0:3 against Legia Warsaw in the first match, but former Hapoel Beer Sheva Josua excelled, the Poles narrowed to 3:2 And they will try to win tonight in the rematch and ensure their promotion.
As mentioned, two losses by Norway will greatly improve Israel's chances of jumping to 15th place in the next stage.
Losses by Young Boys and Cervet Geneva, the 13th-ranked Swiss team, could also be relevant, although this is a scenario that would require at least one of the two Israeli teams to achieve victories on the way to the quarterfinals.
Denmark is in 14th place, with its lone representative being P.C.
Copenhagen, which is expected to lose to Manchester City in the rematch as well and end its path - in order to overtake Denmark, the Israelis need to achieve at least two more victories and a draw, also a scenario that means the qualification of at least one of Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa to the next stage.
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