Hapoel Be'er Sheva has a 4.725 coefficient and will be unseeded in Champions League Qualifying Round 2. Their 17 possible opponents have club coefficients ranging from 42.520 for Red Bull Salzburg of Austria to 5.400 for Trencin of Slovakia. Their other possible opponents from best to worst are Celtic of Scotland, APOEL Nicosia of Cyprus, BATE Borisov of Belarus, Legia Warsaw of Poland, Dinamo Zagreb of Croatia, Ludogorets Razgrad of Bulgaria, Copenhagen of Denmark, Qarabag of Azerbaijan, Rosenborg of Norway, Astana of Kazakhstan, Sheriff Tiraspol of Moldova, Skenderbeu Korce of Albania, Red Star Belgrade of Serbia, Dinamo Tbilisi of Georgia. and FH Hafnarfjardar of Iceland. Maccabi Tel Aviv has a 20.225 coefficient, which is the best of the 96 clubs in Europa League Qualifying Round 1. Beitar Jerusalem has a 4.225 coefficient and will also be seeded in Europa League Qualifying Round 1. Maccabi Haifa has a 11.725 coefficient and will start and be seeded in Europa League Qualifying Round 2. Maccabi Tel Aviv will be seeded in Qualifying Round 2 if they get far. Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv could be seeded in every qualifying round they play in. There are three qualifying rounds and a Playoff Round. Hapoel Be'er Sheva and Maccabi Haifa must advance three rounds to reach a Group Stage. Maccabi Tel Aviv and Beitar Jerusalem must advance four rounds to reach a Group Stage. Hapoel Be'er Sheva can reach the Europa League Group Stage by winning two rounds and losing one round. They must win Champions League Qualifying Round 2 to continue. Then they can reach the Europa League Group Stage by losing in Champions League Qualifying Round 3 and winning in the Europa League Playoff Round or by winning in Champions League Qualifying Round 3 and losing in the Champions League Playoff Round. The draw for Qualifying Round 1 and Qualifying Round 2 of both competitions is tomorrow. The Qualifying Round 1 first legs are Tuesday 28 June and Wednesday 29 June for the Champions League and Thursday 30 June for the Europa League.
There were three sets of clubs in the draw for Champions League Qualifying Round 2, and Hapoel Be'er Sheva's possible opponents from best to worst were Red Bull Salzburg (42.520), Dinamo Zagreb (25.775), Qarabag (13.475), Sheriff Tiraspol (10.575), and AS Trencin (5.400). Hapoel Be'er Sheva was drawn to host the first leg against Sheriff Tiraspol, who dominate Moldova but have a much worse club coefficient than Red Bull Salzburg and Dinamo Zagreb. Sheriff Tiraspol won 10 consecutive Moldovan titles in the 2000s without reaching the Champions League Group Stage. Maccabi Tel Aviv (20.225) will host the first leg of Europa League Qualifying Round 1 against Nova Gorica of Slovenia (3.125). Beitar Jerusalem (4.225) will host the second leg of Europa League Qualifying Round 1 against Sloboda Tuzla of Bosnia-Herzegovina (1.425). The draw for Europa League Qualifying Round 2 will be soon.
In Europa League Qualifying Round 2: Macacbi Haifa will host the second leg against Nomme Kalju of Estonia (3.850 coefficient) or FK Trakai of Lithuania (1.425 coefficient). If Beitar Jerusalem advances, they will host the first leg against Banants of Armenia (1.575 coefficient) or Omonia Nicosia of Cyprus (9.935 coefficient). If Maccabi Tel Aviv advances, they will host the second against KS Teuta of Albania (1.825 coefficient) or Kairat Almaty of Kazakhstan (4.825 coefficient).
On Thursday; Beitar Jerusalem's away leg will start at 12:00 P.M. USA Eastern Maccabi Tel Aviv's home leg will start at 1:15 P.M. USA Eastern The Bet365 odds are exactly even for Beitar Jerusalem's game. Here are the probabilities for Maccabi Tel Aviv's game based on the Bet365 odds: Maccabi Tel Aviv win: 76.4% Draw: 15.3% Nova Gorica win: 8.3%
Sloboda Tuzla of Bosnia-Herzegovina 0:0 Beitar Jerusalem Maccabi Tel Aviv 3:0 Nova Gorica of Slovenia Sloboda Tuzla has a 1.425 club coefficient, all which comes from the minimum coefficient for a club from Bosnia-Herzegovina. I think Beitar Jerusalem should have been good enough to win. They could still advance, but they didn't get any away goals.
Here are tomorrow's start times in USA Eastern: Nova Gorica vs. Maccabi Tel Aviv at 12:30 P.M. Beitar Jerusalem vs. Sloboda Tuzla at 12:45 P.M. Hapoel Be'er Sheva's Champions League Qualifying Round 2 first leg hosting Sheriff Tiraspol will be on Tuesday at 1:50 P.M. USA Eastern.
Hapoel Be'er Sheva's Champions League Qualifying Round 2 second leg will be on Tuesday July 19 at 1:00 P.M. USA Eastern. http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleagu...atch=2020049/prematch/player-lists/index.html is about Beitar Jerusalem's game tomorrow. http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleagu...atch=2020056/prematch/player-lists/index.html is about Maccabi Tel Aviv's game tomorrow.
Beitar Jerusalem 1:0 Sloboda Tuzla Omer Atzily scored the only goal of the aggregate on a penalty kick in the 66th minute. Aldin Džidić of Sloboda Tuzla got a yellow card in the 61st minute and was ejected for a second yellow card in the 87th minute. Beitar Jerusalem had 52 percent of the possession. Nova Gorica 0:1 Maccabi Tel Aviv (0:4 aggregate) Yossi Benayoun scored the only goal of the game in the 10th minute. Maccabi Tel Aviv had 62 percent of the possession. In Europa League Qualifying Round 2: Beitar Jerusalem will host the first leg against Omonia Nicosia of Cyprus. Omonia Nicosia and Banants each would have had a 1:0 win if it wasn't part of a tournament. The aggregate was 1:1 after regulation and Omonia Nicosia dominated extra time to win the aggregate 5:1. Maccabi Tel Aviv will host the second leg against Kairat Almaty of Kazakhstan, who won their Qualifying Round 1 home leg 5:0 today. Maccabi Haifa will host the second leg against Nomme Kalju of Estonia. Israel is in between Cyprus and Kazakhstan in the country coefficients, so the head-to-head games are important.
I wouldn't be completely surprised if all four Jewish sides got to the third qualifying round of their respective tournament. Israel's goal should be to get into the top 15 leagues and get a second berth in the CL. It'll be a challenge, but they have a chance if all of the clubs take care of business.
I was thinking about if a second Champions League berth would be good. It sounds good, but the second place Israeli club would lose by a lot in the Qualifying Rounds to the second place clubs from Ukraine, Russia, Netherlands, etc. For the five seasons ending in 2013-2014, Israel was 17th. Since then, Israel has fallen far. For the four complete seasons 2012-2013 through 2015-2016 and the beginning of 2016-2017, Israel is 26th. In order to finish 2016-2017 with the same coefficient as Israel finished 2013-2014 with, Israel would need 14.250 points in 2016-2017, which won't happen. In 2015-2016, England got 14.250 points, which was the third most of any country.
Hapoel Be'er Sheva won 3:2. When I first checked, Sheriff Tiraspol was up 1:0 and down a man. Sheriff Tiraspol scored in the 22nd minute and had a player get his second yellow card in the 26th minute. That led to a penalty kick that Hapoel Be'er Sheva didn't score. Hapoel Be'er Sheva tied it in the 43rd minute and took the lead with a penalty kick in the 52nd minute. Sheriff Tiraspol equalized in the 64th minute, giving them a second away goals. Hapoel Be'er Sheva got their third penalty kick attempt in the 90th minute and scored the winning goal. Hapoel Be'er Sheva dominated the shots on target (10 to 4) and corner kicks (8 to 1). This was not a great result, but at least Hapoel Be'er Sheva will advance with any win or draw in Moldova. The second leg will be on Tuesday 19 July at 1:00 P.M. USA Eastern. The draw for Qualifying Round 3 is on Friday.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Sports/Beersheba-edges-Sheriff-in-first-leg-thriller-460228 is titled "Beersheba edges Sheriff in first-leg thriller." http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Sports/Early-challenge-for-Mac-TA-vs-Almaty-460349 is titled "Early challenge for Mac TA vs Almaty."
Kairat Almaty 1:1 Maccabi Tel Aviv Yossi Benayoun was subbed on and scored the equalizer. Beitar Jerusalem 1:0 Omonia Nicosia I'm happy with Beitar Jerusalem's performance. They will advance with a win, draw, or 1 goal loss with at least 1 goal scored. Maccabi Haifa 1:1 Nomme Kalju Maccabi Haifa had 63 percent of the possession, but that's a bad home leg against a club with a low coefficient.
If they advance to Qualifying Round 3 of the Champions League, Hapoel Be'er Sheva (4.725 coefficient) will host the second leg against Olympiakos Piraeus of Greece, who has by far the best coefficient of the champions in that round. Olympiakos Piraeus has a 70.940 coefficient and the next highest is 44.585 for Viktoria Plzen. For the five season ending 2015-2016, Olympiakos Piraeus has the 24th best coefficient in UEFA, and many of the club ahead of them start in the Group Stage. I have no hope of Hapoel Be'er Sheva beating Olympiakos, but doing well enough to advance at Sheriff Tiraspol next week is still important because clubs eliminated in Champions League Qualifying Round 3 go to the Europa League Playoff Round. Clubs eliminated in Champions League Qualifying Round 2 are done playing. If they advance to Qualifying Round 3 of the Europa League: Beitar Jerusalem (4.225 coefficient) will host the second leg against Slovan Bratislava of Slovakia (8.900 coefiicent) or Jelgava of Latvia (1.825 coefficient). Slovan Bratislava was seeded in Qualifying Round 2 but only got a scoreless draw at home in the first leg. Maccabi Tel Aviv (20.225 coefficient) will host the second leg against Pandurii Targu Jiu of Romania (7.076 coefficient). Maccabi Haifa (11.725 coefficient) will host the second leg against Zimbru Chisinau of Moldova (3.825 coefficient) or Osmanlispor of Turkey (6.920 coefficient). The first leg was a 2:2 draw at Zimbru Chisinau.
Hapoel Be'er Sheva got a scoreless draw at Sheriff Tiraspol to win the aggregate 3:2. Hapoel Be'er Sheva had a player ejected for a second yellow card in the 90+4th minute. That gave Sheriff Tiraspol a free kick, but they missed the target. Possession was close, with Hapoel Be'er Sheva having 51 percent, and the clubs committed 19 fouls each and got 4 yellow cards each. Hapoel Be'er Sheva did not have a shot on target and Sheriff Tiraspol had 4.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Sports/Massive-Moldova-test-for-Hapoel-Beersheba-460763 was written before today's game. The Jerusalem Post hasn't posted an article about today's game yet.
Hapoel Beersheba (that's what I'm going to start calling them because that's what the Jerusalem Post does) has their Qualifying Round 3 first leg at Olympiakos Piraeus of Greece on Wednesday 27 July at 2:45 P.M. USA Eastern, which is the normal Champions League start time for the Group Stage and Knockout Rounds.
Maccabi Haifa gave up a 90th minute equalizer at Nomme Kalju of Estonia, making both games 1:1 after regulation for a 2:2 aggregate and 1 away goal each. Nomme Kalju scored on all five of their penalty kicks and eliminated Maccabi Haifa. Maccabi Haifa had 53 percent of the possession and 27 free kicks. Omonia Nicosia 3:2 Beitar Jerusalem. Beitar Jerusalem had a good trip to Cyprus as the aggregate was 3:3 with Beitar Jerusalem having the only 2 away goals. Beitar Jerusalem took a 2:1 lead with a 45th minute penalty kick. Omonia Nicosia equalized with a penalty kick in the 45+3rd minute and took the lead in the game and tied the aggregate in the 81st minute. Maccabi Tel Aviv played Kairat Almaty, and www.flashscore.com says the game was played in Netanya, not Tel Aviv. I don't know why. It looked like both legs could end 1:1 after regulation like what happened to Maccabi Haifa, but Gal Alberman scored in the 86th minute to give Maccabi Tel Aviv a 2:1 win in the game and a 3:2 aggregate win.
Olympiakos Piraeus 0:0 Hapoel Beersheba Hapoel Beersheba got a scoreless draw away for the second consecutive week. I'm thrilled Olympiakos Piraeus didn't score in their home leg. Olympiakos Piraeus had 53 percent of the possession and 5 shots on target, which are low enough numbers than Hapoel Beersheba should be happy. Hapoel Beersheba had 2 shots on target and 4 yellow cards, while Olympiakos had 2 yellow cards. All six possible substitutions were made and nobody was ejected. The Bet365 odds gave Olympiakos Piraeus a 70.3 percent chance to win today's leg when I first checked. Then the odds changed and gave Olympiakos Piraeus a 76.6 percent of winning. Hapoel Beersheba's home leg will be on Wednesday 3 August at 2:00 P.M. USA Eastern, which is 45 minutes earlier than the normal Champions League start time for the Group Stage and Knockout Rounds. Israel is 26th in the country coefficients, which is where they started 2016-2017. Yesterday Serbia tied Israel at 14.750 points. Hapoel Beersheba's draw gave Israel 0.125 to go to 14.875. Serbia couldn't get any points today because none of their clubs played. Israel has 2.250 points so far in 2016-2017, which is the same as they had last season and more than Israel's horrible 1.375 in 2014-2015, when Israel was tied for 39th. Tomorrow two Israeli clubs play Europa League Qualifying Round 3 first legs. At 1:00 P.M. USA Eastern, Beitar Jerusalem will be at Jelgava of Latvia. At 2:00 P.M. USA Eastern, Maccabi Tel Aviv will be at Pandurii of Romania. Both Israeli club are more likely to win tomorrow than to lose according to the Bet365 odds, which result in these probabilities: Jelgava win: 26.9 percent Draw: 28.6 percent Beitar Jerusalem win: 44.6 percent It adds up to 100.1 percent due to rounding. Pandurii win: 28.5 percent Draw: 28.1 percent Maccabi Tel Aviv win: 43.4 percent The probabilities for the two games are similar. If they advance to the Europa League Playoff Round (last round before the Group Stage), Maccabi Tel Aviv will be seeded and Beitar Jerusalem will be unseeded. No champions start in the champions path of the Champions League Playoff Round. Olympiakos Piraeus has by far the best coefficient of the clubs in that path, so if Hapoel Beersheba advances, their Playoff Round opponent will have a worse coefficient than Olympiakos Piraeus. From the Jerusalem Post: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Sports/Beersheba-set-for-next-continental-challenge-462470 is titled "Beersheba set for next continental challenge." It was written before today's game. http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Sports/Beersheba-earns-first-leg-draw-in-Greece-462577 is titled "Beersheba earns first-leg draw in Greece." http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Sports/Atzili-Beitar-visit-Latvia-Mac-TA-takes-on-Pandurii-462579 is titled "Atzili, Beitar visit Latvia • Mac TA takes on Pandurii."
FYI, many of these games are available for legal streaming on laola1.tv with crowd noise, but no commentary. I watched the Maccabi Haifa penalty loss last week, watched Olympiacos-Hapoel Be'er Sheva yesterday, and I'm watching Panduri Targu-Jiu v Maccabi Tel Aviv as I type this ( currently 2-1 to Maccabi in the 69th min).
Both Israeli clubs got good results away today: Jelgava 1:1 Beitar Jerusalem In Riga, Latvia, Beitar Jerusalem scored in the 25th minute and Jelgava equalized in the 70th minute. Beitar Jerusalem had 56 percent of the possession but only got 2 shots on target out of it. Jelgava had 4 shots on target. Beitar Jerusalem had more free kicks, corner kicks, and yellow cards. Free kicks were 22 to 17, corner kicks were 3 to 2, and yellow cards were 3 to 2. Both clubs used all three substitutions and nobody was ejected. Jelgava's Valerijs Redjko was subbed off in the 28th minute, so I'm assuming he got hurt. Pandurii Targu Jiu 1:3 Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv scored in the 7th minute and Pandurii Targu Jiu equalized in the 30th minute. Maccabi Tel Aviv scored in the 49th minute and the 77th minute. Maccabi Tel Aviv had 56 percent of the possession and fewer shots on target just like Beitar Jerusalem did. Maccabi Tel Aviv had 4 shots and target and Pandurii Targu Jiu had 5 shots on target. Maccabi Tel Aviv had a big lead in free kicks, 23 to 15. Pandurii Targu Jiu had a big lead in corner kicks, 9 to 4. Maccabi Tel Aviv had more yellow cards, 4 to 2. Both clubs used all three substitutions and nobody was ejected. Hajduk Split of Croatia, Kuban Krasnodar of Russia, and Maccabi Tel Aviv are the only clubs to score 3 away goals so far today, and no club has scored more than 3 away goals. There are 29 games, and 7 are still going on, but all 7 of them are in the 55th minute or later with the away club having scored 0 or 1 goal.
Shir Tzedek, who plays defense, scored the only goal of the aggregate to give Hapoel Beersheba an impressive win. Olympiakos Piraeus ended their streak of playing in five consecutive Champions League Group Stages. Hapoel Beersheba had 55 percent of the possession, more shots on target (4 to 3), fewer fouls (16 to 8), and fewer yellow cards (4 to 1). http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsle...ive/day=-3/session=2/match=2020354/index.html has a summary. Israeli clubs often get more yellow cards than their opponents even when Israeli clubs win. On Friday, Hapoel Beersheba will find out their opponent from among these five possibilities, with their coefficients given: Viktoria Plzen of Czech Republic: 44.585 Red Bull Salzburg of Austria: 42.520 Celtic of Scotland: 40.460 APOEL Nicosia of Cyprus: 35.935 Legia Warsaw of Poland: 28.000 Tomorrow Beitar Jerusalem hosts Jelgava at 1:00 P.M. USA Eastern and Maccabi Tel Aviv hosts Pandurii Targu Jiu 30 minutes later. Israel has a 2.875 country coefficient for 2016-2017 so far, which is tied with Belarus for second. Denmark is first. The top clubs haven't started playing yet.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Sports/Buoyant-Beersheba-gets-past-Olympiacos-463181 is titled "Buoyant Beersheba gets past Olympiacos."
Beitar Jerusalem 3:0 Jelgava (4:1 aggregate) Beitar Jerusalem had 58 percent of the posession, more shots on target (7 to 1), and more corner kicks (7 to 0). Maccabi Tel Aviv 2:1 Pandurii Targu Jiu (5:2 aggregate) Maccabi Tel Aviv had 62 percent of the possession, and more shots on target (13 to 1), but it took until the 80th minute for Yossi Benayoun to score the game-winning goal. The game-winning goal was irrelevant to the aggregate because Maccabi Tel Aviv would have advanced with a draw or a loss by 1 goal. The draw for the Playoff Round of the Champions League and the Europa League is tomorrow at 6:00 A.M. USA Eastern.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Sp...t-playoff-draw-following-easy-progress-463311 is titled "Soccer: Beitar, Mac TA await playoff draw following easy progress." It was written in between yesterday's games and today's draw. It says Ezequiel Scarione scored the 80th minute game-winning goal for Maccabi Tel Aviv, not Yossi Benayoun like I posted yesterday. Champions League Playoff Round: Hapoel Beersheba was drawn against Celtic of Scotland, who has the third best coefficient of the five seeded clubs in the Champions Path. Celtic will host the first leg on Wednesday 17 August and Hapoel Beersehba will host the second leg on Tuesday 23 August. Because Celtic is from Scotland, and Scottish Premier League rights are owned by Fox, I think one of the Fox Sports channels will televise the games live. Of the other four games played on 17 August and 23 August, Porto vs. AS Roma and Villarreal vs. AS Monaco might be considered more important by Fox Sports. I think Celtic vs. Hapoel Beersheba will be considered more important than Ludogorets Razgrad vs. Viktoria Plzen and Dundalk vs. Legia Warsaw. Europa League Playoff Round: There are 22 seeded clubs and 22 unseeded clubs. The clubs were divided into four groups. Two groups had 5 seeded clubs and 5 unseeded clubs each and two groups had 6 seeded clubs and 6 unseeded clubs each. Maccabi Tel Aviv, who is seeded, had these six possible opponents with their club coefficients: Hajduk Split of Croatia: 10.775 Istanbul Basaksehir of Turkey: 7.920 Red Star Belgrade (also known as Crvena Zvezda) of Serbia: 7.175 IFK Goteborg of Sweden: 6.475 SonderjyskE of Denmark: 3.720 (and the capital "E" at the end of the club name is how it is written, I didn't make a typo) Shkendija Tetovo of FYR Macedonia: 2.950 Of the 6 possibilities, Maccabi Tel Aviv got the hardest possible draw. They will host the first leg against Hajduk Split on Thursday 18 August and be away on Thursday 25 August. Before the four groups were made, Maccabi Tel Aviv had 21 possible unseeded opponents. That's 22 unseeded clubs minus Beitar Jerusalem. Those 21 clubs had an average club coefficient of 7.575, so Hajduk Split is a harder than average opponent. Beitar Jerusalem, who is unseeded, had these five possible opponents with their club coefficients: AZ Alkmaar of Netherlands: 43.612 PAOK of Greece: 37.440 Saint-Etienne of France: 26.049 Slovan Liberec of Czech Republic: 22.085 Austria Wien of Austria: 19.020 Of the 5 possibilities, Beitar Jerusalem got the middle opponent, Saint-Etienne, who comes from the best league of the 5 possible opponents. Beitar Jerusalem will host the first leg on Thursday 18 August and play in France on Thursday 25 August. Before the four groups were made, Beitar Jerusalem had 21 possible seeded opponents. That's 22 seeded clubs minus Maccabi Tel Aviv. Those 21 clubs had an average club coefficient of 32.117, so Saint Etienne was an easier than average opponent by that measure. However, Saint-Etienne was among the top half of the 21 clubs. Because of the top seeded clubs like Shakhtar Donetsk having their club coefficient farther away from the average than the bottom seeded clubs, a majority of the seeded clubs had a club coefficient below the average.