Haifa desperate to break Group A duck

Maccabi Haifa FC welcome Juventus to Tel Aviv on Matchday 4 still seeking an elusive first UEFA Champions League point of the season. The visitors from Turin are unlikely to take anything for granted against Elisha Levi's team given how they narrowly escaped defeat on their one previous visit to Israel five years ago.

• Juve were made to work hard for their win in the reverse fixture on Matchday 3, only Giorgio Chiellini's 47th-minute header separating the sides. The win left Ciro Ferrara's team in second place in Group A with five points, two behind FC Girondins de Bordeaux while Haifa are still to get off the mark in terms of goals or points and know a fourth straight defeat could spell an early end to their European season.

Match background
• Haifa lost 1-0 to then holders Parma FC when they first welcomed Italian visitors in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup second round in 1993/94. Tomas Brolin scored Parma's 88th-minute winner but Haifa bounced back with a 1-0 victory in the return leg. Alon Harazi, who is still at the club, provided the assist for Alon Mizrahi's goal but then missed a penalty in the ensuing 3-1 shoot-out defeat.

• Maccabi won all three home games in qualifying – scoring 13 goals – but went down 3-0 to FC Bayern München in their opening Group A match at the Ramat Gan Stadium. In their previous group-stage appearance in 2002/03 they took six points from their three home fixtures.

• This is Juventus's second visit to the Ramat Gan Stadium where they earned a 1-1 draw at Maccabi Tel-Aviv FC in the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League group stage. It took a 71st-minute Alessandro Del Piero equaliser to salvage a point for the Bianconeri, who had earlier beaten Tel-Aviv 1-0 at home through a Mauro Camoranesi goal.

• Current Juve coach Ferrara made his penultimate European appearance for the club in that December 2004 draw in Israel.

• Juventus claimed a goalless draw at Bayern on Matchday 2 but have won just two and lost four of their last ten away matches in Europe, qualifying ties included.

Team ties
• Maccabi midfielder Gustavo Boccoli spent part of the 1999/00 season training in Italy with Brescia Calcio but returned to his native Brazil without playing a game.

• Mohamed Sissoko played in the Liverpool FC team that beat Haifa 3-2 on aggregate in the 2006/07 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round.

• David Trezeguet has scored each time he has faced Israel on the international stage. He struck in a 2-1 victory in a UEFA EURO 2004™ qualifier in Palermo in April 2003 and found the net again in a 3-0 win in the return fixture six months later, firing past Haifa goalkeeper Nir Davidovitch.

• Trezeguet also hit France's goal at the Ramat Gan Stadium when the countries met again in a 1-1 draw in FIFA World Cup qualifying in March 2005. The evening ended unhappily for Trezeguet, however, as he was sent off five minutes after scoring.

• Zdeněk Grygera was in the AFC Ajax team beaten 2-1 at Maccabi Tel-Aviv during the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League group stage.

• Hasan Salihamidžić also faced Tel-Aviv that season, scoring one of Bayern's goals in a 5-1 home win in November 2004.