Europa League
Jovanovic’s plan for qualification: There he will beat Maccabi Haifa
The “strange” situation that the very good, experienced and dangerous Maccabi Haifa has found himself in over the last two months, the ups and downs of his performance and the point at which the Panathinaikos coach wants to “beat” him in the game.
It’s a very “strange” game for Panathinaikos tomorrow (12/14, 7:45 p.m., COSMOTE SPORT 3 HD and LIVE Sportish) against Maccabi Haifa at Leoforos, in the final “round” of the Europa League groups.
“Strange” and very important for a number of reasons that have been analyzed in recent days, around the value of this particular game and the “Cloverleaf”’s first qualification for the knockout rounds in 14 years.
“Strange” because Maccabi Haifa has gone through many different phases this season due to the war situation of the last two months and something with Palestine and Hamas and you can never be sure which team will play against you.
Maccabi on October 5th, which Panathinaikos faced at the “Sammy Ofer Stadium” a few hours before the outbreak of war with Hamas, was a very well organized team, a natural continuation of the group that Barak Bakhar had built and built over the last three years had managed it in three leagues before he left for Red Star.
The war kept the Israeli team busy for more than a month until they returned to the Europa League and pushed the Spaniards to their limits in the game against Villarreal in Larnaca, eventually losing 2-1. From then on, your course is like a roller coaster ride.
In the newly started Israeli league they won two games in a row, but narrowly lost 3-0 to Rennes in Budapest. In the postponed game last Wednesday (6/12), he drew 0-0 against Villarreal at Ceramica, but on Sunday (10/12) there was a 1-1 draw against Beitar Jerusalem, a result that was in the dressing room causes tremors and strong criticism from Masai Dego towards his players.
In any case, they are still a very good team, with players who have been playing together for years and have a lot more “friction” in the European Cups than Panathinaikos has had in the last 5-6 years, having recently played in the Champions League groups Year .
And he is highly motivated to carry on as much as possible this year, despite the war-related problems. Which makes them even more dangerous…
You’ve seen all the games
Ivan Jovanovic and his staff have analyzed all the games Maccabi Haifa has played in the last month or so.
And even more so in the last two European Cup games (with Rennes and Villarreal), but also in the Israeli league, because this is the latest and clearest example of their situation.
This is a team that played in “Ceramica” with much more composed lines, was regularly very well organized and in 3-4 cases looked for the counterattack and the goal with very good conditions, even if they did not find the end.
The Serbian coach expects a similar tactical approach from the Israelis in tomorrow’s game (December 14th) at Leoforos.
And based on this logic, he is also preparing his own team by wanting to “hit” the Israelis in the most “vulnerable” part of their game, the edges of their defense.
The pressure and the twins
Maccabi is showing that it is much more vulnerable on the wings, not because it lacks quality, but because its wingers are not particularly fanatical when it comes to marking their full-backs.
Both Halaili and Hajja are often too slow to return after losing the ball as they move up the pitch, and their defensive marking from Sudgren and Kornud is poor.
And this is exactly where Jovanovic wants to apply more pressure with Sebastian Palasios and Aitor as well as Giorgos Vagiannidis and Filip Mladenovic and their movements from the sides to achieve the greatest possible balance of lines and high quality collaboration from the ends.
From then on, a key requirement for the “Cloverleaf” coach is that Panathinaikos can push the Israelis up from the first minute, gain control and possession of the ball and, above all, have patience, stability and clear thinking in a game whose Dates may vary at any time throughout the game.
And apart from the runs, the intensity and the pressure, elements that Panathinaikos needs to dominate the field, above all in this game they will play… ball and mind.
Source: sport 24
I have been working as a sports journalist for about 6 years now. I currently work as an author at Sportish, which is a sports news website. I mainly cover sports news and I love writing about all aspects of the sport. I also have experience working as a broadcast journalist, so I have some great insights into how sport is reported and presented.
Europa League
Poland took the lead. Who is competing for an additional place in the Champions League?
The two countries with the highest UEFA coefficient at the end of a season will gain an additional entry. Champions League 2026/27.
Like last year, 36 clubs will compete in the main stage of the European Cup main tournament. Two of these will be determined by rating.
All important moments of the match are available in LIVE mode Telegram Sport.ua
The two best-ranked countries in the 2025/26 season will each send one more team to the 2026/27 Champions League.
Next single season rankings:
- P.Olsha (13,625), England (13,486), Germany (12,285), Cyprus (11,406), Italy (11,250), Spain (11,218), France (10,714), Portugal (10,600), Greece (9,500), Denmark (9,500)
The top two countries on this list will be given an additional place in the 2026/27 Champions League.
Leadership Poland It’s about getting bonuses in the Conference League. Three Polish clubs reached the LK play-offs at the same time: Rakow, Lech and Jagiellonia. And only Legia Warsaw withdrew from the tournament.
Ukrainian It ranks 15th among 55 countries in the UEFA single season rankings with 6,812. Shakhtar Donetsk advanced directly to the 1/8 finals of the Conference League and Dynamo Kiev was eliminated from the tournament.
UEFA coefficient For national associations, it is calculated based on the total number of points scored by all clubs in the country. 2 points are awarded for a win, 1 point for a draw, and bonus points are also taken into account. Points received in the qualifying rounds are multiplied by 0.5 times. The total amount is divided by the number of teams representing the country in the European Cup season.
Race for two additional places in the 2026/27 Champions League (top 10)
Top 15 countries in the UEFA rankings for the 2025/26 season
UEFA five-year rankings
Source: Sport UA
Hi, my name is Jayden James. I am a writer at Sportish, and I mostly cover sports news. I have been writing since high school and have been published in various magazines and newspapers. I also write book reviews for a website. In my free time, I enjoy playing soccer and basketball.
english team Aston VillaThe player continues to show incredible form and has already won his 10th consecutive victory in different tournaments.
The successful series includes 7 Premier League matches and 3 Europa League matches. This is a new club record for Aston Villa.
The last win came on 21 December, when the home team beat Manchester United 2-1 at Villa Park in Birmingham.
This winning streak has allowed Aston Villa to secure a place in the top 3 (36 points) of the Premier League standings, ahead of Arsenal (39) and Man City (37).
In the Europa League, Unai Emery’s team safely passed the league stage and entered the top 3 together with Lyon and Mittjylland (15 points out of 18).
Aston Villa’s 10-match winning streak
- 21.12. 19:30. nuclear submarine Aston Villa – Manchester United – 2:1
- 14.12. 16:00. nuclear submarine West Ham – Aston Villa – 2:3
- 11.12. 22:00. LE. Basel-Aston Villa-1:2
- 06.12. 14:30. nuclear submarine Aston Villa – Arsenal – 2:1
- 03.12. 21:30. nuclear submarine Brighton – Aston Villa – 3:4
- 30.11. 16:05. nuclear submarine Aston Villa – Wolverhampton – 1:0
- 27.11. 19:45. LE. Aston Villa – Young Men – 2:1
- 23.11. 16:00. nuclear submarine Leeds – Aston Villa – 1:2
- 09.11. 16:00. nuclear submarine Aston Villa – Bournemouth – 4:0
- 06.11. 22:00. LE. Aston Villa – Maccabi Tel Aviv – 2:0
Aston Villa’s winning streak in the 2025/26 season
Source: Sport UA
Hi, my name is Jayden James. I am a writer at Sportish, and I mostly cover sports news. I have been writing since high school and have been published in various magazines and newspapers. I also write book reviews for a website. In my free time, I enjoy playing soccer and basketball.
Ukrainian defender Nottingham Forest Alexander Zinchenko He shared his feelings after his team beat Utrecht (2:1) in the main round of the Europa League.
“It’s a great feeling. First of all, I’m back. Secondly, it’s an incredible feeling to win a match. Getting three points today was very important for us. As you can see, it was a difficult match. But at the end of the match, I think we got what we wanted and let’s continue like that.”
“As a defender you always want to keep a clean sheet, but unfortunately we couldn’t do that today. So it’s something we need to work on in the future.”
“This is one of those matches where whoever wins the most challenges in different areas of the field will win the match. Today we won many more goals which helped us a lot in the game. But to be honest, even the opportunities we created, including me, we should have scored and finished this match earlier,” said Zinchenko.
Nottingham Forest is in 11th place in the rankings with 11 points after 6 matches in the Europa League this season.
Source: Sport UA
Hi, my name is Jayden James. I am a writer at Sportish, and I mostly cover sports news. I have been writing since high school and have been published in various magazines and newspapers. I also write book reviews for a website. In my free time, I enjoy playing soccer and basketball.
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