As Maccabi Tel Aviv prepared to kick off their European season on Thursday evening in Tiraspol, one of the club's own former heroes was on hand to sound a note of caution rather than triumphalism. Eli Driks, the record-scoring forward who became a Maccabi institution both on the pitch and later as the club's long-serving chief executive, told ONE's "Today's Conversation" programme that beating Sheriff Tiraspol tonight would only be half the job.
"I wouldn't underestimate Sheriff, a team that has played in the Champions League," Driks said, according to ONE, framing the Moldovan champions as a side whose European pedigree makes them a genuine threat despite Maccabi's status as strong favorites on paper.
The message from Driks was pointed: Maccabi need to win the tie itself, but the bigger prize is qualifying deep enough to reach the league phase of a European competition again — continuing a run the club has come to expect and depend on financially and competitively.
Kickoff for the first leg was set for 20:00 at Sheriff's own stadium complex in Tiraspol, the club's regular home for continental nights for two decades. It is the second qualifying round of the Europa League, and it will be the first-ever competitive meeting between the two clubs.
Driks singled out captain Dor Peretz as the player who can decide the tie. "Dor Peretz is the leader, and when he brings his abilities, he drags the team along with him," he told ONE, underlining how central Peretz — who recently returned to the squad after exploring a possible move to Croatia — remains to Kenny Miller's plans.
Asked about the stakes, Driks did not equivocate: reaching the group phase again is "very important" for the club, both in prestige and in the finances that flow from another season in Europe. He said he hopes Maccabi can come away from Moldova with some cushion — "even just 1 or 2" goals — to make the return leg in Georgia more manageable.
That return leg is scheduled for Thursday, July 30, in Batumi, Georgia, rather than at Bloomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv, continuing the pattern of Maccabi staging its home European fixtures away from Israel this season.
Sheriff arrive in the tie as Moldova's dominant force of the modern era, with 21 league titles, every one of them won since the turn of the century. They advanced from the first qualifying round by eliminating Slovenia's Aluminij, drawing goalless away before winning 1-0 at home.
Miller's Maccabi, for their part, go into the tie on the back of a productive close season domestically. Unable to retain the league title — finishing third in both the regular season and the championship playoff group — they still ended 2025/26 with silverware, lifting the Israeli State Cup for the first time in five years, before beating Hapoel Be'er Sheva 3-1 in the Super Cup, with 20-year-old forward Sayed Abu Farchi scoring twice.
Driks, drawing on his own decades in and around the club, also touched on the practical realities of playing continental football away from home this season — including the financial cost of repeated away trips and the club's use of charter flights, a contrast, he noted, with the commercial travel of his own playing days.
For Maccabi, the framing Driks offered captures the tension of the tie precisely: favorites against a limited but battle-tested opponent, with a result tonight that will only be judged in full once the return leg in Batumi is played out a week later.
