Olympiacos vs. Maccabi Haifa Prediction, Tips & Odds – Jul. 27, 2022 21:00 CET
Olympiacos expects a lot from participating in the Champions League this season and failure against Maccabi Haifa would have cataclysmic consequences.
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Olympiacos
Olympiacos didn’t play in the Champions League group stage last season. Finances suffered as a result, so owner Evangelos Marinakis set group stage of the Champions League as club main goal this year. In the first game of the second qualifying round, Olympiacos played 1:1 in Haifa against Maccabi, although they had a lead until 92nd minute.
On paper, Olympiacos has an extremely powerful team that is worth over 120 million euros in total. They kept all best players in all lines of the team including Mady Camara, Pape Cisse and Georgios Masouras. Meanwhile, they signed Sime Vrsaljko, Aboubakar Kamara and Philip Zinckernagel so there will be no excuses for failure. Head coach Pedro Martins is also under big pressure.
It’s certain that Olympiacos will have much more possession and control of the match, but they will hardly rush against Maccabi Haifa. In games like this, one mistake can make the difference between victory and defeat. Coach Martins is very aware of that. This will be his fifth season on the Olympiacos bench, so he knows well how European matches should be played.
Maccabi Haifa
Maccabi Haifa fans have been waiting for a title in Israel exactly ten years. Then, the most promising domestic coach Barak Bakhar came to the club. Between 2016 and 2018, he won three consecutive titles with Hapoel Beer Sheva. Even though several European clubs were interested in him, he didn’t leave Hapoel.
He arrived at Maccabi Haifa in July 2020 and manage to win the title in his first season on bench. He did the same thing a year later, plus he led his team to the Conference League group stage. Maccabi Haifa was really unlucky there, as they were drawn in a group with Slavia Prague, Feyenoord and Union Berlin.
This year, Maccabi Haifa wants to play at least in the Europa League group stage. They changed several players, but the biggest reinforcement is Frantzdy Pierrot, former Guingamp striker. Last week, Maccabi Haifa was more dangerous than Olympiacos. The reason for this is that Olympiacos scored a goal already in 7th minute, so they played defensively entire game. Now the situation on the pitch will be completely different.
H2H
In addition to last week’s match when it was 1:1, these two clubs played against each other in the Champions League group stage in 2002. Then, Maccabi won 3:0 in Haifa, while it was 3:3 in Piraeus.
Injuries
All players are available for Olympiacos. Ben Sahar (fractured foot) and Raz Meir (hip) won’t play for Maccabi Haifa, while Mahmoud Jaber is questionable.
Prediction
Olympiacos is worth 100 million euros more than Maccabi Haifa. Therefore, the ambitions are significantly different. Olympiacos cannot afford to fail here. They have all players available and they will certainly do everything they can to advance in the next qualifying round.
Date and Time: 27.07.2022 21:00 CET
Pick: 1 (Olympiacos to win)
Odds: 1.72
Bookmaker: Ivibet
