Jerusalem to travel to Krakow ahead of Wednesday's Champions League qualifier.
By ALLON SINAIbetar training 224 88(photo credit: Noa Landes)
Betar Jerusalem's preparations for its Champions League second qualifying round second leg against Wisla Krakow suffered an unexpected setback on Monday after the Israeli champion's charter flight was postponed by 24 hours because of a technical malfunction in the plane.
Betar, which takes a 2-1 lead into Wednesday's second leg, waited some seven hours at Ben-Gurion Airport on Monday before the club's management eventually decided to reschedule its departure for Tuesday and spend Monday training in Jerusalem.
The team was hoping to arrive at Warsaw 48 hours before its match and was planning to train in Poland on Monday night.
"It's very disappointing and tiring to wait at the airport for so long, but we shouldn't let this get to us," Betar spokesperson Oded Zargari said.
"We were told that it would take a while to fix the problem and because we wanted to hold a training session we decided to reschedule the flight for Tuesday."
"We are very excited," Betar defender Arik Benado said earlier Monday, before he knew he would only be leaving for Warsaw on Tuesday.
"We now know all about Wisla and it's going to be very tough to play them on the road. They will obviously come to win and play an attacking game and we need to take advantage of that."
The winner of the tie will play Spanish powerhouse FC Barcelona for a place in the Champions League group stage with the first leg to be held a week on Wednesday.
