Maccabi’s 5-0 at Sheriff Bought an Empty Exit

Maccabi Tel Aviv beat Sheriff Tiraspol 5-0 away on July 23 in the Europa League second qualifying round, then were out of Europe by August 27. Kenny Miller’s first night as a European manager produced a 6-0 aggregate and no winter Thursdays.

The score in Tiraspol was earned on the grass. The campaign it opened died in an almost empty stadium in Batumi and a playoff against Lugano.

Five Goals on a Thursday in Tiraspol

Miller named the same side that had won the Super Cup 3-1 away to Hapoel Be’er Sheva. Ofek Melika, 21, started in goal behind Itai Ben Hamo, Ali Camara and Raz Shlomo, with Sagiv Jehezkel and Roy Revivo as wing-backs, Issouf Sissokho and Itamar Noy in midfield, and captain Dor Peretz pushed on with Ido Shahar behind Saied Abu Farchi.

UEFA logged a 22-degree evening and an excellent pitch at the Sheriff Main Arena. UEFA’s first-leg match centre had Cypriot referee Kyriakos Athanasiou in the middle. FBref counted 7,157 in a ground Transfermarkt lists at 12,746 seats.

With less than five minutes gone, Shahar curled a cross from the left and Abu Farchi headed past Emil Timbur. Jayder Asprilla’s ninth-minute header was clawed over by Melika, and Noy had two chances blocked inside 30 seconds around the tenth. Revivo, the 23-year-old left back, then picked out Peretz for a half volley into the far corner on 29 minutes.

THE FIVE IN TIRASPOL

• 5 minutes: Abu Farchi heads in Shahar’s cross from the left.
• 29 minutes: Peretz half-volley from Revivo’s cross, 2-0.
• 53 minutes: Jehezkel rounds Timbur after another Revivo ball.
• 74 minutes: Abu Farchi penalty, after Peretz is fouled in the box.
• 78 minutes: Sissokho’s first Maccabi goal, from a cleared Revivo free kick.

Revivo had a hand in three of the five. Helio Varela, back from World Cup duty with Cape Verde, came on after the hour with Kristijan Belic and Osher Davida. Belic limped off on 72 and was replaced by Dan Glazer. Melika still had work, palming away Konan Loukou on 69 and saving with his feet from Asprilla in the 87th before blocking Danila Forov’s rebound.

Ultimately, it was a fantastic away performance in Europe, and you can’t be disappointed with a 5-0 victory. We need to continue to build this momentum going forward.

Kenny Miller, Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach, after the first leg in Tiraspol

The club’s 5-0 match report called it the start of the 2026/27 European campaign. Miller’s first European night in Tiraspol was also the high point of it.

Sheriff Have Not Looked Like This Since Madrid

Sheriff arrived as Moldova’s serial champion, 21 titles on the ledger, and as the club that beat Real Madrid 2-1 at the Bernabeu on September 28, 2021. Jasurbek Yakhshiboev scored first that night and Sébastien Thill won it in the 89th minute. They had already taken six points from two Champions League group games, including a 2-0 win over Shakhtar Donetsk.

The side Miller faced was not that team. Victor Mihailov’s XI had needed a 0-0 and a 1-0 at Aluminij to reach this round, and Transfermarkt now lists a squad Transfermarkt values at €7 million. Average age 23.3, 19 foreigners, no remaining trace of the 2021 group that knocked out Red Star Belgrade and Dinamo Zagreb on the way to Madrid.

Dhoraso Klas and Asprilla had the one clean look in the first 10 minutes. After that the left side, Revivo’s side, kept asking the same question. Sheriff had no answer that lasted. They would later drop into the Conference League third round, lose 1-3 at home to St. Gallen and 1-5 away, and finish that tie 2-8 on aggregate.

A 5-0 in Tiraspol against that opponent was still a European away win. It was also a result against a club whose European weight had already gone.

€40,000 and One Empty Stadium

The return on July 30 was staged at Batumi Arena in Georgia, where Maccabi are hosting continental home games. About 700 yellow fans were in the ground. The club wrote that they opened the night with pyrotechnics just after kick-off. FBref put the crowd at 1,012.

Miller made one change, with Noam Ben Harosh in and Varela starting. Samba Kone turned Revivo’s free kick into his own net on 29 minutes. Maccabi led the tie by six and spent the rest of the evening trying to add a seventh. Sissokho shaved the bar late. Seventeen-year-old Ilay Ben Simon came on. The 1-0 stood. Aggregate: 6-0.

Miller said he would have preferred another 5-0, and that few sides win a European tie by six. UEFA opened a disciplinary case the next day over the flares. The club suspended ticket sales for the next home qualifier while the file ran.

https://x.com/MaccabiTLVFC/status/2083242026124853453

On August 3 the UEFA disciplinary panel fined Maccabi €40,000 and ordered the next UEFA home match behind closed doors. That next home match was CSKA Sofia, August 6, same Batumi pitch.

FROM TIRASPOL TO THE CLOSED DOOR

1. July 23, 2026: Maccabi win 5-0 at the Sheriff Main Arena.
2. July 30, 2026: 1-0 in Batumi, Kone own goal, flares at kick-off.
3. July 31, 2026: UEFA case opened; ticket sales for the next home qualifier paused.
4. August 3, 2026: €40,000 fine and one UEFA home match behind closed doors.
5. August 6, 2026: CSKA Sofia win 0-3 in Batumi in front of 119.

The night that finished Sheriff also wrote the punishment for the night that decided the season.

What Did a 6-0 Tie Buy?

It bought a third qualifying round against CSKA Sofia, who had come through CSKA Sofia’s qualifying win over Derry City and then Qarabağ on penalties. It did not buy a crowd. FBref listed attendance of 119 for the first leg in Batumi.

Max Ebong scored on 9 minutes, Juan Godoy on 29, and Joel Zwarts in the 90th. Maccabi, locked out of their own “home” stands, went to Sofia 3-0 down. On August 13, in front of 23,653 at Vasil Levski, they won 3-1. Peretz scored on 12, Ester Sokler on 61, Varela on 69. Stefano Sensi’s 66th-minute reply kept CSKA in front on aggregate, 3-4.

A side that had just put six past Sheriff in two legs could not recover a three-goal hole they had conceded with almost nobody in the seats. The 5-0 had made Sheriff look like a bye. CSKA were not.

MACCABI’S 2026/27 EUROPEAN PATH

FBref’s 2026-27 score sheet is the full trail: two wins over Sheriff, then four more European nights and nothing left.

Losing Thursday Nights to Lugano

Defeat to CSKA dumped Maccabi into the Conference League playoff. Lugano won 2-1 in Switzerland on August 20. The return, back in Batumi on August 27, needed a two-goal win for a league-phase place in Monaco the next day.

Maccabi led on the night and 2-2 on aggregate until Dereck Moncada ran half the length of the pitch and beat Melika at the near post. That made it 1-1 on the night and 3-2 to Lugano. Peretz shot wide. Revivo had a header saved. Moncada missed a late break. Raz Shlomo’s last-ditch tackle stopped a fourth away goal in stoppage time. The tie ended 2-3.

Five weeks after Tiraspol, the European season was over. Maccabi’s 27th European campaign, the 14th in a row and a club-record run, had numbered six matches. They have played 209 UEFA games, more than any other Israeli club. This set added two wins, two more that did not save a tie, and two losses that ended it.

Sheriff were already gone. Maccabi lasted one extra round and a playoff, and still came home with the same empty autumn.

Bloomfield Answers After Batumi

The league did not wait. Three days after Lugano, Miller’s side beat Hapoel Jerusalem 5-2. On August 31 they beat Maccabi Haifa 3-1 at Bloomfield, Peretz scoring twice, with Miller asking for a response after a painful Thursday. On September 7 they won 4-1 at Be’er Sheva, three wins from three, nine points, first in the table.

James Tavernier joined that same day and started. Miller, the former Rangers and Scotland striker who had kept the job after a cup win as caretaker, now has a full-time squad and no midweek travel. Maccabi host Hapoel Tel Aviv at Bloomfield on September 14.

The 5-0 in Tiraspol still stands. So does the 6-0. So does the closed door, the 119, the 3-4, and the last Thursday against Lugano. Sheriff remain the club that beat Real Madrid, and the club that shipped five at home to Maccabi on July 23. Only one of those nights still pays them anything.