- Maccabi Tel Aviv are the clear favourite for this fixture at 49/100, with Sheriff Tiraspol 97/20 and the draw 33/10.
- Maccabi Tel-Aviv have won three of their last five matches, drawing one and losing one.
- Sheriff have won three of their last five, drawing one and losing once.
Sheriff to absorb Maccabi pressure at Batumi Stadium
Kenny Miller has made his mark on Maccabi Tel-Aviv in the short time since he took charge of the club on 1st July, 2026. Maccabi come into this fixture on the back of a three-match winning streak, which began with their 5-0 belting of Sheriff and was sealed with a 3-1 Super Cup win over Hapoel Beer-Sheva at the weekend. This will be a tough ask for Sheriff, but they aren't coming into this one cold.
FC Sheriff are a well-drilled, compact unit who don't offer as much up front as Maccabi, but can still pack a punch. Victor Mihailov has done an excellent job since taking over as head coach on 1st June, 2025, keeping his charges organized and tough to break down.
Sheriff won 1-0 against Aluminij in their opening UEFA Europa League Qualification 2026 fixture before losing 5-0 to Maccabi and then taking a 3-2 win over CS Petrocub in the league, so they have some momentum to carry into this game. However, that momentum was obliterated by Maccabi's 5-0 win in the second leg of their qualification clash last week and Sheriff will need to be wary of Maccabi's pace and power on Thursday.
Goals and Maccabi victory expected
Maccabi are clearly the better side in this one and they'll look to take the tie to Batumi. The obvious play is for them to win the match and I'm also taking over 2.5 goals at 13/20 for another exciting European night.
Maccabi's 4-3-3 is built around full-backs that get forward and a midfield that gets into the channels, while Sheriff are usually compact in a 4-2-3-1 or narrow 4-3-3, so Maccabi should look to pin Sheriff back and overload the channels.
Maccabi average 2.50 goals scored and 1.50 goals conceded per match across all competitions, suggesting they can score plenty of goals, but also give them up. Sheriff have scored 14 goals and average 1.40 goals per match, so they can get into this, but they are less likely to score a flurry.
Sayed Abu Farkhi is Maccabi's main danger man with two goals in one UEFA Europa League Qualification 2026 game, but they are a team effort and will look to close down the game early. This should be an interesting contest between two teams with different ideas on how to play, so Sheriff will absorb pressure and try to get forward on the counter or from set pieces, which should suit them.
