Preview: Maccabi Tel Aviv vs. Sheriff Tiraspol – prediction, team news, lineups

Sheriff Tiraspol face an uphill challenge of overturning a heavy 5-0 disadvantage in their Europa League second qualifying round tie in Thursday evening’s second leg at Batumi Stadium.

Given the nature of the deficit, it will take a miracle and an almighty Maccabi collapse to avoid dropping down to the Conference League third qualifying round.

Match preview

The Gaza War preventing Maccabi from playing European games in Israel was meant to level the playing field somewhat ahead of the second leg.

However, Kenny Miller’s team produced a five-star performance a week ago to smash the Yellow Blacks to open up a wide advantage after 90 minutes.

Having been backed to secure a narrow win, the Yellows were rampant on the day, with the Israeli side benefitted by having four different players get on the scoresheet in Tiraspol.

Sayed Abu Farchi was the only one to score twice in the impressive win, picking up where he left off in the Super Cup success over Hapoel Be’er Sheva to continue a fine start to the 2026-27 season.

Aiming to continue their 100% start to the season, Miller’s troops will back themselves to avoid complacency when they ‘host’ their Moldovan opponents on Thursday.

Indeed, it will be interesting to see how Victor Mihailov approaches the return leg in Georgia, considering the nature of the reverse fixture.

Not helped by falling behind after five minutes on home soil before conceding another before the break, letting in three second-half goals effectively killed the game as a contest.

Whatever tiny hope they might have had was further dampened after another failure to find the back of the net, firing blanks in the league when Milsami visited Tiraspol, meaning they head into Thursday’s uphill challenge without scoring in 180 minutes across two matches.

That does not bode well for a side needing to win by a five-goal margin to force extra time or requiring six to complete the most unforeseen of comebacks.

Realistically, fans of the Moldovan outfit will be looking forward to navigating a Conference League third qualifying round tie against St Gallen or Benfica, with the loser also dropping to the third-tier club competition in Europe.

Hisham Layous is not part of the Maccabi squad for this tie, while Ion Nicolaescu and Denny Gropper, both of whom have been absent since last year, are injured.

Last season’s leading players all contributed in the impressive 5-0 success: Dor Peretz netted one goal, Ido Shahar assisted one and Abu Farchi notched a brace, while Roy Revivo set up a strike for the Yellows.

Mihailov’s team did not seem to sustain any fresh injuries in the first leg, while they looked to come through Sunday’s goalless league match with Milsami unscathed, giving the manager a largely healthy squad for their herculean task.

Having netted five goals in consecutive league games, Jayder Asprilla has yet to score on the continent so far, and the forward will hope to end that dismal run in Europe this week.

Maccabi Tel Aviv possible starting lineup:

Melika; Hamo, Camara, Shlomo; Jehezkel, Shahar, Sissokho, Noy, Revivo; Abu Farchi, Peretz

Sheriff Tiraspol possible starting lineup:

Timbur; Ciss, Magassouba, Lopes; Mota, Pergjoni, Klas, Sapata, Forov; Asprilla, Loukou