We said: Hamrun Spartans 0-3 Maccabi Haifa
Maccabi Haifa may be moving forward without last year's Champions League hero Atzili, but the likes of Tjaronn Chery can continue to shine for the Greens on the continental stage, and we can only envisage one outcome in this match.
Hamrun Spartans' defensive discipline in the Maltese division last term was admirable, but they should endure a harsh welcome back to life in the big time as Maccabi Haifa stroll to a convincing win ahead of the second leg on July 18.
Read more.Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Hamrun Spartans win with a probability of 37.34%. A win for Maccabi Haifa had a probability of 35.36% and a draw had a probability of 27.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a Hamrun Spartans win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.73%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.07%) and 2-0 (6.69%). The likeliest Maccabi Haifa win was 0-1 (10.37%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.94%). The actual scoreline of 0-4 was predicted with a 0.8% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted that Maccabi Haifa would win this match.