UEFA Champions League: Red Star Belgrade vs. Maccabi Haifa Preview, Odds, Prediction

Both the Red Star and Maccabi Haifa have a unique chance to advance to the UEFA Champions League group stage. The two teams meet at Rajko Mitic in Belgrade this Tuesday night, in one of their most important games over the last few years. The first game in Israel saw Maccabi coming back from behind and winning 3-2, which gives them a certain edge. However, Red Star and its fans are known for the fiery atmosphere in Belgrade and be sure that they prepare a spectacle that will be remembered for ages.

Preview

Crvena Zvezda (-120) had a free weekend, preparing for the upcoming event and resting the players who had a very tough meeting in Haifa last week. The loss in Israel was the first one for Dejan Stankovic’s crew since the season started and it snapped a seven-game winning streak the Serbian champions had.

They are dominant in the domestic championship, allowing just one goal up to so far while scoring 21 in five games. On the other side, they were pretty good on the international stage eliminating the Armenian champions, Pyunik 5-0 in Belgrade, and 0-2 on the road.

Red Star has an extremely fluid midfield, with a couple of pacey players who are excellent in transition, and Bukari upfront, one of the fastest players in Europe right now.

Maccabi Haifa (+350) is one solid team, and we have to correct our stance from before. After seeing them play against Olympiacos and Apollon, we’ve changed our mind.

The Israeli champs have a very good attack with incredibly strong Frantzdy Pierrot as the tip of the spear. His raw power is superb and creates open space for other players to use this advantage in the best possible way.

Maccabi wants to attack, and they always accept the rival’s challenge to increase the pace early on. They played five UCL qualifying games, three with over 2.5 scores, the remaining two seeing an unreal number of misses, and were also very offensive-minded.

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Bukari had a light injury in the first game, but is expected to play on Tuesday.

Three of Maccabi’s best players also picked up injuries, Pierrot, Haziza and David, but they should be ready as well.

Head to Head Games

Maccabi took the lead in the opening game, but the luck was on Red Star’s side, and the team from Belgrade leveled the score after one deflection. Soon after, they netted one more hit and left for a break with an edge.

However, the home team came back in the second 45 minutes pulling back from behind to win 3-2, and even have a chance to make the difference bigger. Though, to be honest, Red Star missed a few dead opportunities for scoring.

Prediction

Even though the stakes are high, we expect to see a game with plenty of chances and goals. These teams simply like that and don’t slow down the pace, but instead push hard all the time and attack to score. The odds on over 2.5 goals are at -105, and that’s a great value when looking at the overall picture.

Pick: Over 2.5 goals