Salzburg seeking repeat performance

FC Salzburg will hope history repeats itself when they lock horns with Maccabi Haifa FC for a place in the UEFA Champions League group stage.

Previous meetings

• When the clubs last met in the 1994/95 qualifying round, Salzburg overcame Maccabi 5-2 on aggregate to qualify for the UEFA Champions League for the only previous time.

• The Austrian side came from behind to win the first leg 2-1 in Haifa thanks to Mladen Mladenović's 89th-minute spot-kick, Adolf Hütter having earlier cancelled out Haim Revivo's penalty opener.

• In their only meeting against Israeli opponents, Salzburg completed the job a fortnight later, with Mladenović scoring two more goals and Nikola Jurčević also finding the net before Haifa's Alon Hazan scored a last-minute consolation.

• That loss was the first of two defeats in three visits to Austria for the Israeli club.

• Maccabi's veteran defender Alon Harazi was in the starting XI for both legs.

• Having lost that first tie, Maccabi have won their two subsequent two-legged meetings with Austrian opponents. After beating SV Ried in the 1998/99 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup second round, they defeated SK Sturm Graz in the 2002/03 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round.

• After securing a 2-0 first-leg win courtesy of a Yakubu Ayegbeni double, Maccabi travelled to Austria on 28 August 2002 and fought back from 3-1 down to hold Sturm 3-3 thanks to late goals from Adoram Keise and Walid Badir, the latter in the final minute.

• Yaniv Katan and Harazi are the only two survivors of that tie in the Maccabi squad although Keise, scorer of their second goal in Graz, is now technical manager of the Haifa club.

Match background

• Both teams are striving to secure their second participation in the UEFA Champions League.

• Since appearing in the competition in 1994/95 Salzburg have fallen short in four subsequent qualifying bids. Maccabi have failed in five of their six previous attempts.

• Salzburg have relied on their away form to get them this far. They drew both at home to Bohemian FC and NK Dinamo Zagreb before winning each tie with late goals in the subsequent away leg, Patrik Jezek's 86th-minute goal earning a 1-0 win at Bohemians and Robin Nelisse's 83rd-minute effort securing a 2-1 success in Zagreb.

• Maccabi reached the play-off round thanks to a remarkable comeback against FK Aktobe in the third qualifying round. Following a goalless away draw, they were 3-0 down after just 15 minutes in Haifa but battled back to win 4-3, Vladimer Dvalishvili scoring the final two goals. Elisha Levi's men had earlier seen off Glentoran FC 10-0 in the second qualifying round.

Team ties

• Maccabi goalkeeper Nir Davidovich was in the Israel team that beat Austria 5-0 in a UEFA EURO 2000™ qualifier in June 1999.