Maccabi Tel Aviv had previously played 34 Israel Cup Finals, had won the competition a record 23 times.

Their most recent appearance in the final was the previous year's edition, in which they won 6–2 over Hapoel Beer Sheva at Sammy Ofer in Haifa.

The two teams played each other four times during the 2015–16 Israeli Premier League season.

In the first instance, at Sammy Ofer Stadium on 26 September 2015, Tel Aviv won 2–0, Eden Ben Basat and Dor Peretz scoring.

Eran Zahavi and Tal Ben Haim gave them a 2–0 half-time lead.