Israeli clubs were not allowed to host games since late 2023, but now Israeli clubs can host. Hapoel Be'er Sheva (14.000) will start in the Champions League Second Qualifying Round and host the second leg against Vikingur Reykjavik of Iceland (11.750) or ETO Gyor of Hungary (5.437). If Vikingur Reykjavik reaches that round, they will have the highest coefficient of the unseeded clubs.The games are on 21 or 22 July and 28 or 29 July. Maccabi Tel Aviv (32.500) will start in the Europa League Second Qualifying Round and host the second leg against Sheriff Tiraspol of Moldova (20.000) or NK Aluminij of Slovenia (4.893). If Sheriff Tiraspol reaches that round, they will have the highest coefficient of the unseeded clubs. The games are on 23 July and 30 July. Beitar Jerusalem and Hapoel Tel Aviv both have a 5.500, and they will be unseeded in the Conference League Second Qualifying Round. Beitar Jerusalem will host the second leg against AEK Larnaca of Cyprus (20.250). Hapoel Tel Aviv will host the first leg against Ludogorets Razgrad of Bulgaria (28.750). The games are on 23 July and 30 July. Israeli clubs got hard opponents, but at least Israeli clubs can host, and three of them host the second leg. Last season's topic did not get any posts from anybody else, so I thought about not making this topic, but last season's topic got 10,505 views.
Vikingur Reykjavik of Iceland 2-1 Hapoel Be'er Sheva Vikingur's Nikolaj Hansen scored in the 48th, Hapoel Be'er Sheva's Kings Kangwa scored in the 51st, and Hansen scored in the 86th. The odds had Vikingur as a slight favorite. Vikingur had big advantages in shots (13 to 5), shots on target (6 to 2), and corner kicks (7 to 1). Since Hapoel Be'er Sheva lost, I did not look for highlights. I am not saying that Hapoel Be'er Sheva cannot win by multiple goals at home (or win by one goal and win penalty kicks), but I am predicting that they will not advance.
Europa League Second Qualifying Round first leg: Sheriff Tiraspol of Moldove 0-5 Maccabi Tel Aviv Sayd Abu Farhi scored in the 5th, Dor Peretz scored in the 29th, Sagiv Jehezkel scored in the 53rd, Abu Farhi scored a penalty kick in the 74th, and Issouf Sissokho scored in the 78th. Maccabi Tel Aviv dominated statistics with 69 percent of possession, 66.7 percent of shots (18 to 9), 64.7 percent of shots on target (11 to 6), 36 percent of fouls (9 to Sheriff Tiraspol's 16), and 16.7 percent of yellow cards (1 to Sheriff Tiraspol's 5). Conference League Second Qualifying Round: AEK Larnaca of Cyprus 0-1 Beitar Jerusalem AEK Larnaca Mike van der Hoorn got a straight red card in the 72nd, and Brayan Carabali scored in the 77th. Beitar Jerusalem dominated some statistics with 64 percent of possession, 84.2 percent of shots (16 to 3), and 75 percent of shots on target (3 to 1). Beitar Jerusalem had a low percent of their shots be on target. Beitar Jerusalem got more yellow cards 4 to 0, but 4 yellows to different players and no straight reds is better than 1 straight red and no other cards. Hapoel Tel Aviv 2-0 Ludogorets Razgrad of Bulgaria (in Hungary) Omri Altman scored in the 45th, and Chico scored in the 89th. Chico is Brazilian. Ludogorets Razgrad had 59 percent of possession and 2 more free kicks, while Hapoel Tel Aviv was better in other statistics. Hapoel Tel Aviv had 73.7 percent of shots (14 to 5), 70 percent of shots on target (7 to 3), 80 percent of corner kicks (4 to 1), and 20 percent of yellow cards (1 to 4 for Ludogorets Razgrad). I wonder if this is the first day on which three Israeli clubs beat clubs with coefficients of at least 20. Bad news is that I previously saw and typed that Israeli clubs got the right to host back, but they did not. Hapoel Tel Aviv played in Hungary, and next week's games that would have been home games have Beitar Jerusalem playing in Romania, Maccabi Tel Aviv playing in Georgia, and Hapoel Be'er Sheva playing in Hungary. Even if Hapoel Be'Er Sheva drops down from the Champions League next week, it will be disappointing if any of the other three do not win their aggregates.
Hapoel Be'er Sheva 2-0 Vikingur Reykjavik of Iceland (Hapoel Be'er Sheva won the aggregate 3-2) Hapoel Be'er Sheva had to play in Hungary. Zahi Ahmed scored in the 65th to tie the aggregate, and Amit Ganah scored in the 80th to lead the aggregate. Then both clubs lost something because of VAR. In the 82nd, Hapoel Be'er Sheva had a goal taken away for offside. In the 90+4th, Vikingur Reykjavik had a penalty kick taken away. Hapoel Be'er Sheva had better statistics with 56 percent of possession, 75 percent of shots (9 to 3), 60 percent of shots on target (3 to 2), 69.2 percent of corner kicks (9 to 4), 50 percent of yellow cards (4 to 4), and 51.2 percent of free kicks (21 to 20). In the Third Qualifying Round, Hapoel Be'er Sheva will play Red Star Belgrade (Crvena Zvezda) of Serbia, with the first leg in Hungary on 4 or 5 August, and the second leg in Serbia on 11 August. Red Star's 56.500 coefficient is tied with Dinamo Zagreb for the best of the clubs in the Third Qualifying Round and/or Playoff Round, and Hapoel Be'er Sheva has a 14.000. The club coefficients are based on the previous five seasons, so winning games does not help your coefficient get you better seeding for the season in progress. In the 2022-2023 Playoff Round, Maccabi Haifa got a 3-2 win at home and a 2-2 draw in Serbia to make the Group Stage and send Red Star to the Europa League. Red Star won their Second Qualifying Round games 4-0 and 5-0.
Europa League Second Qualifying Round: Maccabi Tel Aviv 1-0 Sheriff Tiraspol of Moldova (Maccabi Tel Aviv won the aggregate 6-0, and the second leg was in Batumi, Georgia) Samba Kone scored an own goal in the 29th. Maccabi Tel Aviv dominated with 66 percent of possession, 66.7 percent of shots (12 to 6), 100 percent of shots on target (3 to 0), 63.2 percent of corner kicks (12 to 7), 0 percent of yellow cards (0 to 2), and 55.6 percent of free kicks (15 to 12). There were no penalty kicks or red cards. In the Third Qualifying Round, Maccabi Tel Aviv will play CSKA Sofia of Bulgaria at a neutral site on 6 August and in Bulgaria on 13 August. CSKA Sofia's 6.500 coefficient is lower than Maccabi Tel Aviv's 32.500, but CSKA Sofia was seeded because the draw for the Third Qualifying Round was done before the Second Qualifying Round, and in the Second Qualifying Round, CSKA Sofia defeated Qarabag of Azerbaijan (42.750). That was decided by penalty kicks after neither club scored in 210 minutes including extra time of the second leg. Conference League Second Qualifying Round: Beitar Jerusalem 2-3 AEK Larnaca of Cyprus (aggregate 3-3, Beitar Jerusalem won penalty kicks 4-3, and the second leg was in Ploiesti, Romania) Beitar Jerusalem won 1-0 in Cyprus last week. They did worse at a neutral site than away, but the important thing is that they advanced. AEK Larnaca's Hrvoje Milicevic scored a penalty kick in the 26th to tie the aggregate. Beitar Jerusalem's Omer Atzili scored a penalty kick in the 45+2nd to tie the game and lead the aggregate. Milicevic scored in the 52nd to tie the aggregate. Atzili scored in the 87th to tie the game and lead the aggregate. Riad Bajic scored in the 90+2nd, to tie the aggregate. Nobody scored in extra time. The six aggregate goals alternated clubs so that Beitar Jerusalem blew three aggregate leads, and AEK Larnaca never led the aggregate. Both clubs scored their first two penalty kicks. AEK Larnaca shot first, and their third kick failed. Beitar Jerusalem scored their third kick, and both clubs scored their fourth kick to make Beitar Jerusalem lead penalty kicks 4-3. AEK Larnaca needed a goal and Beitar Jerusalem not scoring, and AEK Larnaca did not score, so Beitar Jerusalem won penalty kicks 4-3 without taking their fifth kick. Each club led in some statistics. Beitar Jerusalem had 63 percent of possession, 70.6 percent of shots (24 to 10), 57.1 percent of shots on target (12 to 9), 38.5 percent of corner kicks (5 to 8), 66.7 percent of yellow cards (6 to 3), and 54.2 percent of free kicks (26 to 22). There were no red cards. In the Third Qualifying Round, Beitar Jerusalem will play Austria Wien in Romania on 6 August and in Austria on 13 August. Austria Wien has a 9.500 coefficient. That is higher than Beitar Jerusalem's 5.500, but Beitar Jerusalem was seeded because they borrowed AEK Larnaca's coefficient. Ludogorets Razgrad 2-2 Hapoel Tel Aviv (Hapoel Tel Aviv won the aggregate 4-2) Hapoel Tel Aviv's Emmanuel Boateng scored in the 16th, Ludogorets Razgrad's Kwadwo Duah failed on a penalty kick in the 39th, Ludogorets Razgrad's Bernhard Tekpetey scored in the 47th, Ludogorets Razgrad's Alberto Saido Tajero scored in the 54th, and Hapoel Tel Aviv's Boateng scored in the 58th. Ludogorets Razgrad had better statistics with 62 percent of possession, 61.9 percent of shots (13 to 8), 50 percent of shots on target (5 to 5), 75 percent of corner kicks (6 to 2), 50 percent of yellow cards (4 to 4), and 55.3 percent of free kicks (21 to 17). In the Third Qualifying Round, Hapoel Tel Aviv will play GKS Katowice of Poland in Hungary on 6 August and in Poland on 13 August. GKS Katowice's 9.350 coefficient is higher than Hapoel Tel Aviv's 5.500, but Hapoel Tel Aviv was seeded because they borrowed Ludogorets Razgrad's coefficient. All four Israeli clubs have their second leg away. Israel ended last season 21st in the country coefficients. Because of how many points dropped out from 2021-2022, Israel is 25th for the last four complete seasons and this season so far. Romania (2), Ukraine (2), and Slovenia (1) have higher coefficients, but they have at most 2 clubs left, whereas Israel has all four clubs left, and has the second lowest coefficient for a country with four clubs left. For 2026-2027 so far, Israel is tied for 30th through 34th with 1.375, but some countries got points from the First Qualifying Round that no Israeli clubs had to play in. Slovenia's remaining club is NK Celje in the Champions League, so they can dropped down levels twice without being eliminated, and they are guaranteed to reach a Group Stage. Romania has Universitatea Craiova in the Europa League and CFR Cluj in the Conference League. Ukraine has Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League and Dynamo Kyiv in the Conference League.
Hapoel Be'er Sheva 1-0 Crvena Zvezda (Red Star Belgrade) of Serbia (in Hungary) Zahi Ahmed scored the only goal in the 38th. Hapoel Be'er Sheva did not get any cards until the 58th, when they got three including two for Matan Baltaxa (Flash Score has his last name as Baltaxa in one place and Baltaksa in another place). Flash Score says the 58th, while UEFA says the second yellow was in the 60th. I did not expect Hapoel Be'er Sheva to keep the lead, but they did. They got the ball in the goal, but VAR took it away for offside. Red Star will be disappointed to have no goals and 2 shots on target in the second half while up a man for about 70 percent of the half. Red Star had better statistics with 58 percent of possession, 73.1 percent of shots (19 to 7), 77.8 percent of shots on target (7 to 2), 72.7 percent of corner kicks (8 to 3), 44.4 percent of yellow cards (4 to Hapoel Be'er Sheva's 5 that includes a second yellow), and 64.5 percent of free kicks (20 to 11). There were no penalty kicks. Flash Score said that the goal came from a mistake by the goalkeeper. Flash Score gave man of the match to Hapoel Be'er Sheva goalkeeper Ofir Marciano. I would not be surprised if Red Star wins by at least 2 goals to advance, but they have 1 draw and 2 losses in 3 games against Israeli clubs including the 2022-2023 Champions League Playoff Round against Maccabi Haifa that I typed about above. The Playoff Round draw was yesterday. If Hapoel Be'er Sheva advances, they will play AGF Aarhus of Denmark or Sabah of Azerbaijan, and that first leg is tomorrow. AGF Aarhus's club coefficient is only 8.421, but they were seeded in the Third Qualifying Round because they borrowed the 27.250 from Lech Poznan of Poland, who AGF Aarhus beat. Sabah was unseeded in the Third Qualifying Round even with borrowing another club's coefficient. They have a 6.000, but beat The New Saints of Wales (9.000) in the First Qualifying Round, and beat KuPS Kuopio of Finland (14.000) in the Second Qualifying Round. AGF Aarhus or Sabah will host the Playoff Round second leg. Both of them should be much weaker than Red Star.
I am disappointed in Israeli clubs today, and I did not type statistics. Europa League Third Qualifying Round: Maccabi Tel Aviv 0-3 CSKA Sofia of Bulgaria (in Batumi, Georgia) Maccabi Tel Aviv has a 32.500 coefficient. CSKA Sofia was seeded because they beat Qarabag of Azerbaijan (42.500) in the previous round, but CSKA Sofia had a 6.500. Conference League Third Qualifying Round: Beitar Jerusalem 1-2 Austria Vienna (Austria Wien) (in Ploiesti, Romania) Beitar Jerusalem scored first, but they lost. Beitar Jerusalem has a 5.500 coefficient, but they were seeded because they beat AEK Larnaca of Cyprus (20.250) in the previous round. Austria Vienna has a 9.500. Hapoel Tel Aviv 2-0 GKS Katowice of Poland Hapoel Tel Aviv has a 5.500 coefficient, but they were seeded because they beat Ludogorets Razgrad of Bulgaria (28.750) in the previous round. GKS Katowice has a 9.350 coefficient.