The profiles of Maccabi Haifa and Apollon Limassol, potential Olympiakos opponents in the Europa League play-offs

Olympiacos have their sights set on the games against Slovan in the Europa League 3rd qualifying round. However, the red-whites got to know their potential opponent for the playoffs of the second-rate European inter-club competition.

Notably, Carlos Corberan’s team meets the loser of Maccabi Haifa’s match against Apollon Limassol.

The first leg takes place on August 18 with Piraeus visiting, with the second leg a week later on August 25 in Karaiskakis. The games will be broadcast by COSMOTE TV.

In a few words A Red-Whites reunion with the Israelis, to whom they were eliminated in the Champions League 2nd qualifying round, is a possibility about which Sportish had reported since Monday.

Maccabi Haifa’s profile

Olympiacos now know Maccabi Haifa, both good and bad, who faced them in the Champions League 3rd qualifying round. The Reds and Whites drew 1-1 with Israel in their opening game and were then beaten 4-0 at Karaiskakis, a game that saw Pedro Martins sacked.

Last season, Maccabi’s failure in Europe proved beneficial for her to focus on domestic competitions. Eliminated by Kairat in the 1st qualifying round of the Champions League, they progressed to the 2nd qualifying round of the Europa Conference League where they were eliminated in the group stage.

When she released her calendar, she was on a ten-game winning streak and finished the regular season (26 games) with just three losses. He took an early lead in the title playoffs, and in the end the other three losses of the season (in 10 games) were bloodless.

In the Cup, they reached the final with five wins in four rounds and were beaten in the final, while they had two wins in the Toto Cup and one win in the Super Cup last July against Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Among the players who stood out in the games against Olympiakos was Franzi Piero, who scored two goals in the game against Karaiskakis. The Reds will also have to watch out for Khaziza, who equalized with an unlikely goal against Israel, and Tyrone Seri, whose name has been linked with the Reds.

Maccabi Haifa’s coach is Barakl Bahar. After an excellent stint at Hapoel Be’er Sheva, during which he also eliminated Olympiakos in the 2016-2017 Champions League qualifiers (although he was sacked in January 2020), he brought him to Haifa in the summer of 2020. His run is also very good, he has only 19 defeats and after the re-qualification he emerged as the evil demon of the red and white.

The profile of Apollo Limassol

Last season was a dream for Apollon Limassol. The start might not have been similar as he was eliminated by Zilina in the Conference League qualifiers.

Essentially, this exclusion had a positive effect, so that Apollo was able to start the championship with a bang. He did great in the regular season as he built a gap to take first place in the playoffs. There he managed to secure the championship despite the belly he was making. The games against Maccabi Haifa are the first official ones for this year.

Apollon Lmesos’ coach is Alexander Zorniger. The 54-year-old caused a sensation during his time in Leipzig in the lower league and helped them jump into the 2nd Bundesliga until Ralf Rangnick took over his job. After being there as an assistant in 2009, he returned to Stuttgart in the summer of 2015 but, despite the optimism, failed miserably and was fired in November 2015.

His next job followed in May 2016 at Broadby, where he enjoyed his first successes at top division level. He stayed in Denmark until February 2019 after winning two consecutive runners-up places (though he ended up losing the league in 2018) and the 2018 Cup.

In 2021 he found a coaching home at Apollon Limassol, which he led to the first championship since 2006 and fourth place overall.

Some of our acquaintances from their days in the Greek stadiums are competing at the Apollon Limassol. Notably, Tsorniger’s team includes Haris Mavrias, Tasos Avlonitis, Nicholas Digini (Panthrakikos, Atromitos, Aris), Israel Kohl (Apollon Smyrna), Valentin Roberges (Aris), George Denich (on loan to Atromitos last year), Ilian Iliev (son of Ilian Iliev, who played for AEK in 1998) and Panagiotis Artymatas (on loan to Kifissia last year) and Dimitris Pinakas, on loan from Olympiakos B.

Apollo’s star is John Pittas. The 24-year-old Cypriot winger enjoyed a full season at such a level last year that he attracted interest from foreign teams. He was his top scorer in all competitions with 11 goals in 43 finals (20 of them accurate) and the first of his kind with 5 assists.