Israeli outfit Maccabi Tel Aviv entertain Shakhtar Donetsk in the Europa League round of 32 on Thursday evening, as both teams look to take an advantage into the second leg.
The hosts finished second in Group I to qualify for the knockout stages of the competition, while the Ukrainian champions dropped down from the Champions League after narrowly missing out on a place in the top two of Group B.
Match preview
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Caretaker manager Patrick van Leeuwen is unbeaten during his short time in the Maccabi dugout, overseeing nine wins and one draw in his 10 games at the helm.
The Dutchman has helped to extend the Bloomfield Stadium outfit's unbeaten run to 14 matches and has reduced the gap to league-leaders Maccabi Haifa down to just two points.
Tel Aviv's impressive run of recent form will fill them with confidence coming into this one, despite their underdog status.
This is only the second time that Maccabi have reached this stage of the Europa League in their history after losing to Basel in 2014, and Leeuwen's men will be desperate to go one step further this time around.
Shakhtar came close to advancing from a group containing Real Madrid, Borussia Monchengladbach and Inter, finishing level on points with the German side, but ultimately missed out due to an inferior head-to-head record.
Luis Castro's charges reached the semi-final stage of the last season's competition, where they were thrashed 5-0 by a Romelu Lukaku-inspired Inter Milan.
The 2009 champions have made an unbeaten start to their league campaign, picking up eight wins and six draws from their 14 Ukrainian Premier League outings, although they trail Dynamo Kyiv by three points.
They came back from their lengthy winter break over the weekend but were held to a surprise 0-0 draw by mid-table side Kolos.
Castro will be hoping that the stalemate eradicated the rustiness within his squad and fully prepared his side for this crucial midweek clash.
Maccabi Tel Aviv Europa League form: WWLDDW
Maccabi Tel Aviv form (all competitions): WWWWWW
Shakhtar Donetsk form (all competitions): WWWDWD
Team News
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Maccabi will be without long-term absentee Uros Nikolic as the attacking midfielder has yet to recover from a serious knee injury.
He is joined on the treatment table by Yonatan Cohen, Eden Karzev and central midfielder Eyal Golasa, who picked up an ankle injury at the start of the month.
Castro is unable to call upon the services of defensive midfielder Maksym Malyshev, with the 28-year-old several weeks away from making a return to first-team action following knee surgery.
Brazilian forward Dentinho is also sidelined via a calf injury and will play no part in Thursday's game.
Maccabi Tel Aviv possible starting lineup:
Daniel; Saborit, Tibi, Hernandez, Kandil; Glazer, Peretz; Cohen, Rikan, Bitton; Pesic
Shakhtar Donetsk possible starting lineup:
Trubin; Matviyenko, Vitao, Kryvtsov, Dodo; Patrick, Stepanenko; Taison, Marlos, Konoplyanka; Moraes
We say: Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-1 Shakhtar Donetsk
Shakhtar will be the favourites coming into this two-legged tie, but Maccabi are have been in impressive form of late and will fancy their chances in midweek. The Ukrainians played their first competitive fixture in two months on Sunday, and their lack of action could result in a shock victory for the hosts.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Maccabi Tel Aviv win with a probability of 40.98%. A win for Shakhtar Donetsk had a probability of 32.13% and a draw had a probability of 26.9%.
The most likely scoreline for a Maccabi Tel Aviv win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.04%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.56%) and 2-0 (7.41%). The likeliest Shakhtar Donetsk win was 0-1 (9.51%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.76%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with a 5.5% likelihood.
