Kenny Miller’s Gamble Pays Off as Maccabi Rout Sheriff 5-0

Maccabi Tel Aviv put five goals past Sheriff Tiraspol without reply on Thursday night, and did it with the exact XI that had won the Israeli Super Cup four days earlier. Not one change, not at kickoff and not at halftime with the game already put to bed. It was the first competitive continental match in charge for permanent head coach Kenny Miller, and it ended as the most one sided possible answer to whether his methods travel.

The scoreline also carried a second story inside it. Sheriff Tiraspol, the Moldovan club that once walked into the Bernabéu and beat Real Madrid, could not lay a glove on a Maccabi side that took Miller barely five months to build.

Two Goals Before the Break

Maccabi went at Sheriff’s left side from the opening whistle, with left back Roy Revivo, a 23-year-old already central to the attack, causing repeated problems down that flank. The pressure paid off inside five minutes. Ido Shahar curled a cross from the left and striker Saied Abu Farchi rose above his marker to head it past goalkeeper Emil Timbur.

Sheriff answered almost immediately. Jayder Asprilla met a floated cross with a header that looked destined for the net until goalkeeper Ofek Melika, just 21, stretched to tip it over. Itamar Noy had two more chances inside a minute soon after, both blocked, and Sheriff briefly threatened again in the 25th minute before Melika smothered another dangerous cross.

Maccabi’s second goal grew out of the same buildup pattern. Itai Ben Hamo sliced Sheriff open with a through ball that found Sagiv Jehezkel, whose shot drifted just wide. A minute later Revivo delivered again, this time picking out captain Dor Peretz for a half volley that rolled inside the far post. Maccabi went in at the break 2-0 up, having barely eased off the accelerator.

The Coach Who Didn’t Blink

Miller made no changes at the interval either, a small detail that says a lot about how quickly he has settled into the job. He only joined Maccabi in January, brought in as part of Ronny Deila’s coaching staff after the pair arrived from Atlanta United. When Deila left in May, Miller stepped up as caretaker and won the Israeli State Cup final against Hapoel Be’er Sheva before the club made him permanent head coach on a one-year deal with an extension option.

It is a fast rise for a coach whose managerial background before Maccabi was mostly built on assistant and caretaker roles rather than a long top job. His path there ran through several stops.

• Livingston – his first steps in charge, as player-manager
• Newcastle Jets and Western Sydney Wanderers – assistant coaching spells in Australia
• Falkirk – assistant, including a three-game caretaker stint
• Huddersfield Town – assistant coach
• Maccabi Tel Aviv – joined under Deila, then caretaker, now permanent boss

Club owner Mitch Goldhar made the case for promoting him from within.

Since joining Maccabi in January, Kenny has earned the respect of all of us with his professionalism, work ethic and understanding of the standards, values and ambitions expected at Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Goldhar, the club’s owner, said that when Miller’s deal was confirmed. Miller himself pointed to the pull of the job, saying he felt “the passion, ambition and expectations that make Maccabi such a special place” from the day he arrived. Before any of that, Miller built his name as a Scotland international striker, including two spells at Rangers, a club now dealing with its own version of the qualifying grind, lining up a pre-season friendly against Sparta Prague ahead of its own Europa League draw.

Three More Goals Complete the Rout

Seven minutes into the second half, Revivo turned provider again, releasing Jehezkel to round the keeper and roll in Maccabi’s third. Three minutes past the hour, Miller made his only real move of the night, sending on Kristijan Belic, Osher Davida and Helio Varela in a triple substitution for Noy, Jehezkel and Shahar.

Sheriff had their best spell of the match soon after. Konan Loukou got in behind unmarked in the 69th minute but could only force a fingertip save out of Melika. Three minutes later Belic went down injured and was replaced by Dan Glazer. Then, with the captain driving at goal, the game turned decisive again.

Abu Farchi released Peretz into the box, Peretz was hacked down, and Cypriot referee Kyriakos Athanasiou pointed to the spot. Abu Farchi sent the penalty into the top corner for his second of the night. Four minutes later, midfielder Issouf Sissokho arrived at the end of a loose ball, after Revivo’s free kick was half cleared, and buried his first goal for the club.

Five different passages of play, three different scorers finishing chances someone else created, and Revivo’s fingerprints on three of the five.

Melika Locks the Door

The other half of the story is that Sheriff barely threatened a way back in. Melika’s save from Asprilla in the ninth minute set the tone, and he was called on again late, this time twice in the same passage. In the 87th minute he first saved with his feet from Asprilla, clean through on goal, then palmed away Danila Forov’s rebound from point blank range.

A 21-year-old goalkeeper kept a clean sheet against a side that had 12 minutes of stoppage time and a five goal deficit to chase. He did not need to make many saves, but the two that mattered most both came in the final minutes, after the result was already decided.

Five Years After Stunning Real Madrid

Context is what makes Thursday’s scoreline sting for Sheriff. This is the same club that produced one of the biggest shocks in Champions League history, winning 2-1 at the Bernabéu in September 2021 with Sebastien Thill’s late goal sealing it after Karim Benzema had equalized from the penalty spot. Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti said afterward it was “difficult to explain” how his team had lost. Sheriff topped their Champions League group after two matchdays that autumn, and had won 19 of the previous 21 Moldovan league titles heading into that campaign.

Five years on, the same club could not lay a finger on a Maccabi team assembled on a fraction of Real Madrid’s budget, in a qualifying round three tiers below the competition Sheriff once graced. Football moves fast at the margins. A club capable of beating a 13-time European champion at its own stadium is now the one on the wrong end of a five goal night against opposition that had never met it before.

Qarabağ or CSKA Sofia Waits in Round Three

Maccabi entered this tie seeded, courtesy of its UEFA coefficient, and a 5-0 first leg cushion leaves Sheriff needing an almost impossible turnaround. The second leg kicks off the following Thursday, July 30, with Maccabi again unable to host in Israel and instead hosting the return leg in Batumi, Georgia.

Whoever wins the tie on aggregate moves into the Europa League’s third qualifying round against the winner of Azerbaijan’s Qarabağ FK and Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia, in a pairing already locked in by UEFA’s third qualifying round draw held in Nyon. Those first legs are set for August 6, with the returns on August 13. Lose the tie instead, and Maccabi drops into the Conference League’s third qualifying round against the loser of Swiss side St Gallen and Portugal’s Benfica.

Sunderland faces a similar scheduling crunch this summer, with its own Europa League fixture list turning into a cross-continent travel scramble before the group stage even begins. For Maccabi, the immediate calendar is simpler. Kickoff for the second leg in Batumi is set for July 30, with Maccabi already five goals clear of a place in August’s third qualifying round.