Maccabi Tel-Aviv v Basel background

A late equaliser in Switzerland has left the ball in Maccabi Tel-Aviv's court as they bid to get past Basel in the UEFA Champions League play-offs.

Previous meetings
• Eran Zahavi struck his second of the night six minutes into added time to earn Maccabi a 2-2 draw in their first leg in Basel.

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

• Basel's record against Maccabi is W2 D3 L0, with both of 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 fixtures against Swiss opposition is W0 D4 L3.

Form guide
• A 2-1 loss to Viktoria Plzeň in their most recent European game at the Itzstadion Bloomfield ended a ten-match unbeaten continental home run (W6 D4) for Maccabi.

• Basel's 3-1 victory at Lech Poznań in the last round ended a five-game wait (D1 L4) for a European away success.

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

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

• In 11 encounters between Swiss and Israeli clubs in UEFA competition, the Israeli side has won only 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.

Links and trivia
• Maccabi's Eran Zahavi is now the top scorer in this season's UEFA Champions League qualifying competition with six goals

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

• A Palermo team containing Maccabi's Zahavi went down 1-0 to an Internazionale Milano lineup featuring Basel's Walter Samuel in 2012 Serie A action.

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

• Basel's Marek Suchý came on as a substitute when the Czech Republic beat an Israel side including 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 all figured in Israel's 3-2 friendly victory over an Iceland team incorporating 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 side.