Three Israeli soccer teams will look to punch their tickets to their respective European competition playoff rounds this week after solid results in the first leg of their third-round qualifying ties.
Maccabi Haifa smashed Apollon Limassol 4-0 in the Champions League, while in Conference League action, Maccabi Tel Aviv blanked Aris Thessaloniki 2-0 and Hapoel Beersheba recorded a 2-0 win over Lugano in Switzerland.
With regards to Haifa, one indication that everything is going well is that Ali Mohammed – who hadn’t scored in over 3,000 minutes of play with the Greens – found the back of the goal not once but twice as Barak Bachar’s boys continued to mow down one opponent after the next while steamrolling toward the group stages.
With a 4-0 Haifa win over an overmatched Apollon Limassol in a first-leg, third-round duel – the Greens’ second 4-0 win in a row at home – there is no reason to dream of anything less than the club’s first appearance in the world’s top club championship since the 2019/10 season.
While there is still the second leg in Cyprus, and then the playoff round, Haifa looks to be destined to play Red Star Belgrade for the right to face the best of the best teams in Europe – whether it's Liverpool, Real Madrid, PSG, Manchester City or Barcelona.
Bachar’s squad was the better team from the get-go as it displayed fine form early in search of the opener to break the ice and open the floodgates. That precisely what happened in the 38th minute, when Dolev Haziza’s tough-angled shot glanced off Mathieu Peybernes and behind Limassol ’keeper Aleksandar Jovanović for an own-goal and a 1-0 lead.
Mohammed, who hadn’t scored in 3,156 minutes and in his 55th game with Haifa, added the second and third goals of the match in style to the delight of the fans.
His first came off a gorgeous volley in the box from a Frantzdy Pierrot pass 10 minutes into the second half, while the next tally was a powerful header thanks to a Dean David pass for a 3-0 lead in the 62nd minute.
What about Maccabi Haifa?
Haifa continued to pour on the offense and found the fourth goal when Pierrot’s diving header off a brilliant Haziza cross completed the scoring frenzy for the game as the second leg next week already looks to be a formality.
“This is a great start,” Bachar said following the blowout win. “But when you have so many chances you feel that you can score more and more and even [the] fifth goal. We continued our momentum from the last game, but we still have to play a second match in order to advance.”
Should the Greens play in Cyprus as they did at Sammy Ofer in front of their raucous crowd – or even at half that strength – they should easily take care of Limassol without too much trouble. Bachar was correct in saying that his team could have scored more, but a 4-0 win is good enough.
Still, Haziza was left thinking there could have been even more goals in the win.
“Before the game Barak made sure that we were grounded and that we would be able to repeat our performance from last week and continue towards our ultimate goal. I believe we could have been even better and we missed out scoring a fifth and sixth goal, but we will take this win.”
Elsewhere, at Bloomfield Stadium, Eran Zahavi made a triumphant return to Maccabi Tel Aviv as the Israeli superstar scored a late goal to give the yellow-and-blue the triumph over Aris Thessaloniki in UEFA Conference League first-leg, third-round qualifying action.
In front of over 21,000 fans, Maccabi grabbed a 1-0 lead in the 29th minute via Djorde Jovanovic. Zahavi added the insurance marker in the 84th minute after having come in as a second-half substitute to the delight of the fans who sang his name at the top of their lungs.
Vladen Ivic’s squad will now get ready for the second leg in Greece next week at the Kleanthis Vikelidis as the yellow-and-blue will look to punch its ticket to the playoff round of the competition.
“I had one goal when I came in which was to score and help the club,” Zahavi said following the game. “I’m happy that I was able to score an important goal, but we haven’t finished the job so we need to relax a bit. I’ve scored a lot of goals over the past few years but there’s no question that this was one of the most exciting and emotional ones. Everyone dreamed of this moment for many years.”
Ivic also spoke about his team’s victory.
“We played a good game and of course there is plenty to improve on,” said Maccabi’s coach. “We played a number of various formations and we won 2-0, but we still have an away game which will be a totally different story. Our goal is to advance to the next stage and we worked hard the past month-and-a-half so we are hoping that we will be even better.”
Aris head coach German Burgos also gave his thoughts on the match.
“It was an injustice for us as we created seven or eight clear situations for a goal. It’s the first half and we will now prepare the second half. We will need to first earn a draw and then win the game.”
Aris midfielder Manu Garcia reflected on the defeat and feels that his team has a chance in the return leg.
“There is confidence we can do something in the home game and turn it around. We expect the fans to help us in the next game which will be in a full stadium and I can’t wait to see them fight with us.”
“There is confidence we can do something in the home game and turn it around. We expect the fans to help us in the next game which will be in a full stadium and I can’t wait to see them fight with us.”
Aris midfielder Manu Garcia
In other Conference League action, Hapoel Beersheba blanked Lugano as Elyaniv Barda’s team will return home, hopefully to Turner Stadium, for the second leg next week in position to advance to the playoff round.
Due to the current conflict situation with Gaza affecting Israel’s security, it is still unclear if the game will take place in Beersheba, Haifa or in another country with Cyprus being the most practical choice.
Tomer Yosefi opened the scoring when he headed with authority a Eugene Ansah ball into the back of the goal for a 1-0 lead for the Southern Reds in the 39th minute.
Astrit Selmani added a second goal for Beersheba when he latched onto a Micha ball and put it into the Lugano goal for a 2-0 win in the first leg of the third qualifying round.
“We began the game well and we scored a goal that we deserved,” Barda said. “In the second half we went backwards a bit which was expected, but we knew how to close out properly and we were able to score a second goal which was super important. As far as I am concerned we only did half the job and this result is dangerous. We have to come home and work on our mistakes.”