Riga ready for first-round qualifying duel against Donis, Maccabi Tel Aviv
Maccabi will look to get back into continental competition this season and make its mark in Europe.
By JOSHUA HALICKMANDOR PERETZ and Maccabi Tel Aviv have their sights set on an extended European run this season, with the Champions League group in reach for the Israeli champion(photo credit: Courtesy)
Maccabi Tel Aviv will face Riga FC in Champions League first-round qualifying action in a single-elimination match on Wednesday night at Bloomfield Stadium.Should the yellow-and-blue advance past Riga, it will go on to play away the winner of the duel between Flora from Estonia and Suduva from Lithuania.Head coach Giorgos Donis will be on the bench for his first official game with Maccabi Tel Aviv and will have plenty of weapons at his disposal, including the just-resigned Eyal Golasa. Donis will also have a fully rested captain Sheran Yeini and left-back Enric Saborit in his lineup along with last season’s league most valuable player, Dan Glazer. Daniel Tenenbaum will be in goal while Avi Rikan, Tel Ben Chaim and Nick Blackman will all be available on the attack in the winner-take-all clash.After having not played in the group stages of the Europa League since the 2017/18 season and the Champions League two years prior, Maccabi will look to get back into continental competition this season and make its mark in Europe.To find out what Maccabi and its brand-new Greek bench boss will be facing, The Jerusalem Post spoke to Edmunds Novickis from Sportacentrs to find out what the yellow-and-blue can expect from its Latvian foe.Riga FC was founded in 2014 and has already made a huge impact on the local soccer scene with league championships and 2018 and 2019 while also winning its national State Cup in 2018. In addition, the club advanced all the way to the playoff round of Europa League qualifying last season, where it fell to European giant Copenhagen.As for what style Riga will play, it will most probably look to counterattack, explained Novickis.“Riga will wait and play deep as Maccabi is the bigger club and favorites in this matchup,” he said.“The club has a good goalkeeper in Robert Ozols, who can save penalties, and it also has quality central defenders. Almost all of the foreign players are attackers, with Brazilian playmaker Felipe Brisola as the anchor as he has been excellent over the last two years when he’s been healthy.”Riga also has a new head coach, Oleg Kononov, who arrived in February and had been at the helm of Spartak Moscow prior to joining the Latvian squad. However, as Novickis noted, that won’t affect the club’s solid recent results.“Mihails Konevs, who was head coach last year, stayed on with the staff so the same work has continued within the club and it has produced good results.”While Maccabi hasn’t played in Europe for a number of seasons, Riga will want to do the same and punch its ticket to the group stages for the first time in club history.“Last year Riga was very close to the group stages so the players smelled the taste of a big achievement and want to try again,” said Novickis. “Ambitions have grown and before the season the club clearly said it wants to advance to the group stages this year. But the draw has been tough and the journalists in Latvia think that the chance is more likely to come in the Europa League and not in the Champions League.”While Riga’s players have kept mum on their upcoming tie at Maccabi, they know that it’s a huge challenge that is in front of them.“The clash with Macabi and playing in Europe is a big priority as Riga won the Latvian championship fairly easy,” said Novickis. Of course, everyone at Riga and in the Latvian football society understands how big Maccabi Tel Aviv is as a club.”
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