I'm disappointed also but Ireland's league is 29th in UEFA which is toward the middle and not one of the "weakest leagues in Europe."
relax hapoel will advance and so will haifa beni yehuda wasnt expected to do much so its ok maccabi tel aviv thers my dissapointment all the money they spent isnt showing on the field
2:1 against Olympiacos in Greece isn't showing much on the field? Not to mention they were leading 1:0 until Bangin received a red card in the 60-something minute. I think Maccabi Tel Aviv are doing great.
Yeah Hapoel should advance but you never know one away goal for Aktobe and it might be over for them. And Maccabi Haifa is far from through right now, very tough away game after a poor first leg. If anything Maccabi Tel Aviv got the best result this week even tho they lost but a 2-1 away loss to Olympiacos is better than losing to Aktobe or struggling to beat Minsk at home.
OK Bnei Yehuda losing to Shamrock Rovers was probably not that surprising. They're not nearly as good as they were last year under Guy Luzon, who did a great job with them the last couple of years. They overachieved under him but now they will probably go back to being a mid-table team again under Kashtan.
i disagree maccabi haifa didnt strugle to win we played a great game that couldve ended 4-0 hapoel was the worst and maccabi didnt do horrible but the red card eneded it for them i think they'll get out and haifa and hapoel will advance
Here are probabilities for the second leg from Bet365 and https://www.bwin.com/football using my formula found at my BigSoccer blog to convert odds into probabilities: Hapoel Tel Aviv win: 68.4% from Bet365, 71.9% from bwin Draw: 20.2% from Bet365, 20.0% from bwin FK Aktobe win: 11.4% from Bet365, 8.2% from bwin bwin gives the clubs equal chances at advancing.
Try http://myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=82069&part=sports or http://en.justin.tv/best_kicker#/w/291691008
http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/newsid=1510093.html#cornered+hapoel+come+fighting is titled "Cornered Hapoel to come out fighting." What color(s) will each club wear today?
I'm watching at http://mysporti.blogspot.com/p/ch1.html. Hapoel Tel Aviv is wearing red and Aktobe is wearing white. Edit: Hapoel Tel Aviv leads 3-0 at halftime (3-1 aggregate). The second goal was after an Aktobe turnover in their own half and the third goal was an own goal when what I'm assuming was meant to be a pass back to the goalkeeper hit the goalpost and went in before the goalkeeper could get back to keep it out. Edit: The player who scored the own goal also got a yellow card. There were three yellow cards a little before halftime and a total of two yellow and no red cards for each club. Hapoel Tel Aviv got called for offside a lot and I wouldn't say they dominated the game. Aktobe had maybe four or five plays I would call shots on target but all of them were handled easily by the goalkeeper. Hapoel Tel Aviv is in good shape as they know they advance if they allow 0 or 1 goal in the second half.
Hapoel Tel Aviv 3-1 FK Aktobe (Final, Hapoel Tel Aviv advances 3-2 on aggregate) FK Aktobe got a goal in the 90th minute. http://en.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/matches/season=2011/round=2000116/match=2002732/index.html has statistics. There were four yellow cards in the second half, all for Aktobe. Aktobe also had more than twice as many fouls, 24 to 11. Hapoel Tel Aviv had 5 shots (3 on target) and Aktobe had 8 shots (5 on target). The draw for the Playoff (final qualifying) Round is on Friday. http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsle...116/match=2002732/postmatch/report/index.html is titled "Hapoel ensure Aktobe of more disappointment." Israeli clubs in 2010-2011 UEFA competitions have already earned 1.750 points towards Israel's country coefficient which is as many as Israel got from 2008-2009.
UEFA has once again ruled that Bloomfield can not host Champions League matches. So they will have to play in Ramat Gan.
Hapoel, as they are a seeded team, will play either Red Bull Salzburg (Austria), Rosenborg (Norway), FK Partizan (Serbia), Zilina (Slovakia) or Sheriff Tiraspol (Moldova) over two legs on August 17/18 and August 24/25 for a place in the Champions League group stage. Personally, I believe they should be able to beat all of these sides. Rosenborg would probably be the hardest. Maccabi Haifa beat Red Bull comfortably in the second leg in Israel but they won't be a pushover. The other three sides are a bit weaker - but still, there are no easy games at this level.
Hapoel Tel Aviv will play Salzburg of Austria away on Wednesday August 18 and home on Tuesday August 24.
http://en.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/newsid=1511059.html#champions+eyeing+group+stage+prize says: "FC Salzburg v Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC Huub Stevens, Salzburg coach We did not want to travel this far, but there is nothing we can do about that. This will be a tough ask. Israeli football has shown what it is capable of several times. Since last year, everyone should know just how strong their top teams are. This has been impressively demonstrated by Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Tel-Aviv. Douglas da Silva, Hapoel defender At this stage every team wants to reach the group stage and the battle will be harder than anything we have known so far in Europe because for every team there is a lot more at stake. The Austrian champions are not a side that can be underestimated and I am just delighted the return leg will be at home in front of our fans."
Using my formula found on my BigSoccer blog to convert odds into probabilities, here are the first leg probabilities from the Bet365 odds: Salzburg win: 50.1% Draw: 27.0% Hapoel Tel Aviv: 22.9%
http://en.uefa.com/uefachampionslea...117/match=2002389/prematch/preview/index.html is titled "Salzburg steeled for Hapoel visit."
ben sahar! overlooked by chelsea and espanyol. i hope he proves to the world his true value this year.