Maccabi Tel Aviv open their European campaign proper on Thursday night, away to Sheriff Tiraspol in the second qualifying round of the Europa League, and Kenny Miller's players already understand the scale of what is at stake: get past the Moldovan champions and a route toward the group stage stays open, lose and the fallback is a far harder road through the Conference League.

Kickoff for the first leg is 20:00 Israel time at Sheriff's own stadium complex in Tiraspol, in Moldova's breakaway Transnistria region, where the club have played their European nights for two decades. The return leg follows a week later, on Thursday, July 30, in Batumi, Georgia — the venue Maccabi have been using for home continental fixtures.

It will be a first-ever competitive meeting between the two clubs, according to reporting around the draw. Maccabi were relieved to avoid tougher potential opponents such as Dynamo Kyiv or Hajduk Split when the pairing was confirmed, but ONE's assessment of Sheriff is unambiguous: this is a side that will be very hard to break down.

Sheriff have won Moldova's league 21 times, every one of those titles since the turn of the century, though they slipped to runners-up last season as their long grip on the domestic game loosened. They reached this round by eliminating Slovenia's Aluminij, drawing away in Moldova before winning 1-0 in Slovenia — clean sheets in both legs, largely playing out of defensively compact 5-4-1 and 5-3-2 shapes, per ONE's scouting of the Moldovan side.

Maccabi arrive on the back of silverware of their own. On July 16 they beat Hapoel Be'er Sheva 3-1 to lift the Israeli Super Cup, a follow-up to a 2025/26 league campaign in which they finished third in both the regular season and the championship playoffs but still ended the year with a trophy — their first State Cup in five years. A 3-1 preseason friendly win only added to the sense of early-season momentum, though Miller's staff are wary of reading too much into results before competitive football starts.

ONE reports the manager is expected to stick with largely the same personnel and shape that started that Super Cup win, set up in a 4-2-3-1. Serbian midfielder Kristijan Belić — known in Hebrew coverage as "Blitz," who joined on loan from AZ Alkmaar last year before Maccabi exercised their option to sign him permanently through 2029 — has completed a full training session and is available for selection.

Defender Tyrese Asante, who missed time with illness, has been back in light training and is expected to be fit enough for Thursday. His inclusion matters beyond just squad depth: Italian side Monza have opened contact over a possible transfer, with Israeli outlets reporting Maccabi would be looking for a fee in the region of €3-4 million for a player they signed from ADO Den Haag two years ago for around €600,000.

Further forward, the group Miller has been building around includes Issouf Sissoko and Itamar Noy screening in midfield, with Sagiv Yehezkel and Ido Shahar providing width, Dor Peretz operating in the number 10 role and Sayed Abu Farha leading the line — the same core that has featured through preseason, according to Sport1's reporting on the club's likely XI for Tiraspol.

The consequences of Thursday's result stretch well beyond the tie itself. ONE reports that a Maccabi exit would mean dropping into a Conference League qualifying draw against Switzerland's St. Gallen — described as a notably difficult assignment. Progress, on the other hand, guarantees Maccabi at least a place in the Conference League play-off round, while a Europa League third qualifying round berth would bring a possible meeting with Qarabağ or CSKA Sofia.

For a club still adjusting to life without a title at home, a strong week in Moldova and Georgia would go a long way toward defining what kind of European season this becomes.