Basel v Maccabi Tel-Aviv background

Basel will try to get the better of Maccabi Tel-Aviv once more, with the sides having been drawn together for the third time in two years.

Previous meetings
• Basel and Maccabi met four times in the course of the 2013/14 season; Murat Yakin's Basel eliminated Paulo Sousa's team from the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round, then ousted them from the UEFA Europa League round of 32.

• Basel's record against Maccabi is W2 D2 L0, with both those wins coming at home. They have played no other games against Israeli clubs.

• Maccabi have yet to win a match against Swiss opponents; their overall record in six encounters with Swiss sides is W0 D3 L3.

Form guide
• Basel have won three of their four UEFA Champions League play-off ties, the sole exception being a loss to Romania's CFR Cluj in 2012/13. They have not lost in six UEFA qualifying games since then (W5 D1).

• This is Maccabi Tel-Aviv's first UEFA Champions League play-off. Their only previous group stage campaign was 2004/05.

• In ten matches between Swiss and Israeli clubs in UEFA competition, the Israeli team have won just once, with the Swiss claiming five victories. That solitary Israeli success was a 1-0 for Maccabi Petach-Tikva at FC Aarau in the 1997 UEFA Intertoto Cup. Of the four games staged in Israel, three have ended in draws with the visitors winning the other.

• Basel have won all eight of their competitive fixtures this season, scoring 22 goals and conceding five.

Links and trivia
• Maccabi midfielder Avraham Rikan played in Switzerland for Zürich from 2013–15; he figured in eight matches against Basel with the record W2 D2 L4. One of those victories was a 2-0 in the 2014 Swiss Cup final.

• A Palermo side including Maccabi's Eran Zahavi lost 1-0 to an Internazionale Milano outfit featuring Basel's Walter Samuel in 2012 Serie A combat.

• Basel's Philipp Degen and Maccabi's Tal Ben Haim met in Switzerland's 1-1 FIFA World Cup qualifying draw with Israel in September 2005.

• Basel's Marek Suchý came on as a substitute when the Czech Republic beat an Israel team containing Maccabi's Eytan Tibi, Yuval Shpungin, Ben Haim, Zahavi and Gil Vermouth 2-1 in a May 2012 friendly.

• Maccabi's Shpungin, Gal Alberman, Zahavi and Vermouth were all involved in Israel's 3-2 friendly success against an Iceland side that included Basel's Birkir Bjarnason in 2010.

• Basel's Zdravko Kuzmanović was a half-time substitute in Serbia's 2-0 friendly win against Israel in February 2011, with Ben Haim, Zahavi and Vermouth on the losing team.