Salzburg find hope in away form

FC Salzburg must produce a third successive UEFA Champions League away victory if they are to revive their hopes of reaching the group stage in their play-off second leg at Maccabi Haifa FC.

• The Austrian titleholders won at Bohemian FC and NK Dinamo Zagreb following home draws in the previous rounds, but they face a more daunting assignment in Israel after going down 2-1 to Haifa in the first leg on 19 August.

• Mohammad Ghadir (22) and Shlomi Arbeitman (84) scored either side of Alexander Zickler (57) for the hosts to leave Elisha Levi's side strongly placed to book their return to the group stage after a seven-year absence.

Previous meetings

• The clubs faced each other in the 1994/95 qualifying round, Salzburg prevailing 5-2 on aggregate to qualify for the UEFA Champions League for the only previous time.

• The Austrian outfit 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.

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

• After losing out to Salzburg in 1994/95, Maccabi won their two subsequent two-legged meetings with Austrian opponents. They defeated SV Ried in the 1998/99 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup second round, then got the better of SK Sturm Graz in the 2002/03 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round – winning at home on both occasions.

• In the latter contest, they earned a 2-0 first-leg win over Sturm courtesy of a Yakubu Ayegbeni double, then 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.

• 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

• Salzburg have relied on their away form to get them this far. They drew 1-1 at home to Bohemians and Dinamo Zagreb before winning each tie with late goals in the subsequent away leg, Patrik Jezek (86) earning a 1-0 win in Dublin and Robin Nelisse (83) securing a 2-1 success in Zagreb.

• 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.

• 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. Levi's men had earlier seen off Glentoran FC 10-0 in the second qualifying round.

• Haifa's supporters will know better than anybody not to take anything for granted in UEFA Champions League qualifying.

• In the 2001/02 second qualifying round they beat FC Haka 4-0 in the second leg after a 1-0 away win but saw that home victory converted to a 3-0 default loss because they had fielded a suspended player.

• In the 2004/05 third qualifying round Haifa recovered from a 2-1 first-leg loss to Rosenborg BK to lead 2-0 in the return. However, after floodlight failure had caused an interruption in play, Harald Brattbakk's 90th-minute free-kick took the tie into extra time and Haifa conceded twice more.

• In the 2005/06 UEFA Champions League second qualifying round they were within touching distance of an away-goals victory over Malmö FF, leading 2-1 in Haifa after a 3-2 defeat in Sweden. But after Arbeitman was sent off, the ten men conceded an 89th-minute Malmö equaliser.

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.