Kenny Miller has three extra options to think about — and, by his own club's account, a genuine headache to go with them. Hélio Varela, Tyrese Asante and Christian Blitz all trained fully with the Maccabi Tel Aviv squad on Tuesday, one day before the team flew out to Moldova for Thursday's Europa League second qualifying round first leg against Sheriff Tiraspol, ONE reports.
All three had been missing when Maccabi opened their season with a 3-1 win over Hapoel Beer Sheva in the Israeli Super Cup on July 16 — the traditional curtain-raiser pitting the league champions against the cup winners. Said Abu Farha scored twice in that game, with Dor Peretz adding a third and Sagiv Yehezkel teeing up all three goals.
Varela, the Portuguese winger, had been away on World Cup duty with Cape Verde and only returned to the group in the days before the trip. Asante, the Dutch-born, Ghanaian-descended centre-back, had been sidelined for close to a week after a bout of illness. Blitz, the Serbian midfielder whose loan move from AZ Alkmaar has since been converted into a permanent deal through 2029, had been managing a knock of his own.
That all three now appear fit and available leaves Miller weighing whether to restore them straight into the side that beat Beer Sheva so convincingly, or ease them back in from the bench. According to ONE, the coaching staff see it as a live decision rather than a formality, not least because Sheriff Tiraspol are expected to play a markedly different game to Beer Sheva.
The Moldovan champions are a well-drilled, physically imposing side with a track record of causing problems for bigger continental names in Chișinău and beyond, and Miller's assistant Stuart Taylor has reportedly been central to the scouting work done on them this week.
Thursday's first leg kicks off at 20:00 local time, with the return fixture scheduled for the following week. Advancing would keep Maccabi on course for the Europa League group stage; losing the tie would send them into the Conference League qualifying rounds instead — a notably steeper path for a club that swept both domestic cup competitions last season.
Miller, the former Scotland international striker, only took permanent charge of Maccabi in June after steering the club to the Israel State Cup as caretaker following Ronny Deila's departure during the playoffs. Thursday's game in Moldova will be his first competitive test as a full-time head coach in Europe.
For now, the selection call is the kind of problem most coaches would welcome: three qualified internationals fit and pushing for a starting shirt, rather than three fresh injury worries on the eve of a continental tie.
