Perfect league record and a hot striker: Maccabi Tel Aviv's next opponent

Maccabi Tel Aviv has participated in the group or league stage in each of the last three seasons. Will they do it for the fourth time in a row? After being eliminated from the Europa League by CSKA Sofia, the team standing in their way in the Conference League qualification playoff round is Switzerland's Lugano, which started the season fantastically with seven wins in eight matches across all competitions. The first leg will be next Thursday at the AIL Arena in Lugano (8,150 seats) and the return leg in two weeks in Batumi, Georgia, Maccabi Tel Aviv's European home for this season.

Lugano, where Ofir Mizrahi previously played, finished in fourth place in Switzerland and hopes to qualify for the Conference League league stage, as it did two years ago. Back then, it advanced before being eliminated by Celje in extra time in the round of 16. Mattia Croci-Torti, who also coached against Hapoel Be'er Sheva in the two losses in the Conference League qualifiers in 2022/23, has been in the position since September 2021.

The Greek striker Georgios Koutsias was sold to Famalicão for 2.5 million euros, and in his place came the 18-year-old talent from Honduras, Derek Moncada, who was bought for 3 million euros from Inter Bogotá and became the most expensive signing in the club's history. Moncada has already scored twice in the league, but the one who is hot so far is the veteran German Kevin Behrens, who has seven goals in all competitions so far. In the past, he also recorded a goal and an assist against Maccabi Haifa (in the uniform of Union Berlin, in a 3:0 win in the Conference League group stage about five years ago).

Lugano is the only team with a perfect record in the Swiss league after three rounds. It started with a 2:1 home win over Vaduz, thrashed Grasshoppers 4:1 in Zurich, and crushed FC Zurich 5:0. Besides the 35-year-old Behrens, the team is led by two other veterans: captain Renato Steffen (34) and goalkeeper David von Ballmoos (31). In the three-center-back formation, two other significant players are on the wings: the Italian Mattia Zanotti on the right and the Frenchman Yanis Cimignani on the left.

Tonight, the team avoided embarrassment in the Faroe Islands, after trailing 2:0 against Runavík and losing the 2:0 lead from the first match. But then Zanotti came on and after three minutes assisted Cimignani (66). Behrens made it 2:2 in the 79th minute, after an assist from Steffen.