Red Star Belgrade vs Maccabi Haifa Prediction: Serbs will secure entry into the Champions League group

The return leg of the Champions League play-off round will take place on 23 August 2022 in Belgrade, where Red Star Belgrade will face Maccabi Haifa. 

The team has recently been the unquestionable leader in Serbian football and has long kept its rivals out of the championship spot. This season, the Red and White have been at the top of the standings and have gradually managed to create a gap between them and their rivals. Moreover, Partizan is currently sitting in 11th place. On the other hand, Dejan Stankovic's side has performed worse in the Champions League qualifiers. Although they beat Pyunik, they lost to Maccabi 2:3 in their away game.

Maccabi has been the Israeli champion for the last two seasons, although they had failed to take the top spot for ten years before that. Moreover, the Greens could clinch two more national trophies after winning the championship. Still, they lost first to Hapoel in the National Cup final on penalties (2:3) and then in the Super Cup again on penalties (1:2). The team had qualified for the Champions League a little earlier. First, they beat Greek Olympiacos, then Apollo Cyprus, and, in the first game of the play-off round, they also beat Crvena Zvezda (3:2).

Red Star Belgrade is frequent in major international tournaments, but Maccabi doesn't have much such experience. The Israeli side won the first leg of the Champions League play-offs, but it will be challenging for them to build on their success. The Serbian side has a far more experienced and skilled squad that knows how to overcome a difficult situation and achieve a positive result. As a result, we're betting on Red Star to win at odds of around 1.73.

Red Star and Maccabi are two teams willing to play open and attacking football, and they often succeed in doing so. Their statistics confirm this, with the Serbs having scored 34 goals (3.78 goals per game on average) in their last nine encounters, while the Israelis have produced 15 goals (3.75 goals per game on average) in their previous four games. Moreover, they combined for five goals in their first head-to-head encounter a week ago. So, we suggest betting on a total over 2.5 for 1.688.

If we try to predict the exact score of the upcoming confrontation, we can look at the outcome as 3:0 in favor of the hosts. The thing is that they not only constantly win on the home field but also score a lot, while in defense, they win to nil. In their five previous encounters at the Raiko Mitic stadium, they've won by a combined score of 24:0. Impressive statistics! Of course, Maccabi is a higher-level opponent than most opponents in the Serbian league, but the Red and Whites should still win comfortably. You can bet on a 3:0 score at odds of around 15.00.

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