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.
Crvena Zvezda (Red Star Belgrade) of Serbia 0-2 Hapoel Be'er Sheva (Hapoel Be'er Sheva won aggregate 3-0) I am amazed that Hapoel Be'er Sheva had a shutout win. Flash Score's betting tips said to bet for Red Star to have a shutout win or to win by multiple goals (I do not remember which, but they were way off either way). Red Star went from winning an aggregate 9-0 to losing an aggregate 3-0. Nobody scored in the first half. At halftime, Red Star subbed on Marko Arnautovic, who is the top player in the history of the Austrian national team. In the 57th, Red Star Coach Dejan Stankovic got a straight red according to the events list, while Flash Score's recap said it was two yellows close together. Igor Zlatanovic, who is Serbian, scored in the 61st to take the lead and make the aggregate 2-0. Javon East scored in the 79th. Red Star's Mohammed Abu Fani got a straight red in the 90+2nd. Flash Score gave him man of the match. He is an Israeli who played for Israeli clubs including Maccabi Haifa. Red Star had 66 percent of possession in the second half to finish with 57 percent. Hapoel Be'er Sheva had 45 percent of shots (9 to 11), 75 percent of shots on target (6 to 2), 50 percent of corner kicks (3 to 3), and 55.2 percent of free kicks (16 to 13). Sabah Baku of Azerbaijan won 4-0 hosting AGF Aarhus of Denmark to win the aggregate 5-2, so Hapoel Be'er Sheva just needs to beat Sabah Baku (6.000) to reach the League Phase. Reaching the League Phase is worth at least 6 bonus points, which is 6/4 = 1.500 for Israel's country coefficient. There used to be a 4 point bonus for reaching the Group Stage. Israel is 24th in the country coefficients for the last four complete seasons and this season so far, and that is down from 21st at the end of last season because of the points from five seasons ago that dropped out. Of the three nearest countries to Israel that are above Israel, Romania has no clubs left in the Champions League, so they cannot get a bonus from that. Hapoel Be'er Sheva has never reached the Champions League Group Stage or League Phase. They had consecutive close attempts with a 5-4 aggregate loss to Celtic of Scotland in the 2016-2017 Playoff Round, and a 2-2 aggregate and 1-0 away goals elimination against NK Maribor of Slovenia in the 2017-2018 Playoff Round. In 2018-2019, they lost the Second Qualifying Round aggregate to Dinamo Zagreb of Croatia 7-2, and 2025-2026 was their first Israeli title since 2017-2018 that qualified them for 2018-2019.
GKS Katowice of Poland 1-2 Hapoel Tel Aviv (Hapoel Tel Aviv won aggregate 3-2) I checked Flash Score late in the game, and I saw that GKS Katowice scored in the 88th to go up 2-0 and tie the aggregate at 2. However, that did not happen because when I opened the page for the game, I saw that Hapoel Tel Aviv scored in the 23rd to lead the aggregate 3-0, so they still led the aggregate while trailing in the game 2-1. I do not know why that goal was not shown on Flash Score's homepage. Stav Turiel scored Hapoel Tel Aviv's goal, while the goals they allowed were in the 83rd and a penalty kick in the 90th. If they trailed 2-0 after regulation, it would have gone extra time, but I would have expected them to lose in extra time if that happened. GKS Katowice was better at most statistics with 67 percent of possession, 56 percent of shots (14 to 11), 70 percent of shots on target (7 to 3), 70 percent of corner kicks (7 to 3), and 33.3 percent of yellow cards (1 to Hapoel Tel Aviv's 2). Fouls were 18 each, and Hapoel Tel Aviv had 56.1 percent of free kicks (23 to 18), and 51.0 percent of combined corner kicks and free kicks (26 to 25). There were no red cards. Most Conference League games were on Thursdays, but today's game was on a Wednesday. Unfortunately, Hapoel Tel Aviv will not reach the League Phase because their Playoff Round opponent is Atalanta of Italy, whose 84.000 coefficient is by far the highest of any club in the Conference League. Atalanta will host the first leg, and I would not be surprised if they win by enough that they do not use some of their best players in the neutral site second leg. After tomorrow's second legs, I expect Maccabi Tel Aviv to drop to the Conference League, and Beitar Jerusalem to be eliminated. That would mean that Israeli clubs would enter the Playoff Round with one in the Champions League, two in the Conference League, and one eliminated. If Maccabi Tel Aviv plays in the Conference League Playoff Round, they will have the first leg away and the second leg at a neutral site. They will play Lugano of Switzerland (21.250) or NSI Runavik of Faroe Islands (2.000). NSI Runavik won two rounds as an unseeded club. Lugano won the first leg 2-0 at home. Based on the draw that was based on seeded clubs winning in the Third Qualifying Round, Lugano is the second easiest of the 19 seeded clubs who Maccabi Tel Aviv could have faced. Maccabi Tel Aviv has a higher coefficient than Lugano, but Maccabi Tel Aviv played so much worse than their coefficient in a 3-0 neutral site loss to CSKA Sofia of Bulgaria that I expect Maccabi Tel Aviv to be eliminated. Hapoel Be'er Sheva is guaranteed to reach the League Phase of the Champions League or Europa League, but I do not expect any other Israeli clubs to reach a League Phase. Highlights of Hapoel Be'er Sheva's win yesterday:
Both Israeli clubs won today, but were eliminated from the tournament they were in. Europa League Third Qualifying Round second leg: CSKA Sofia 1-3 Maccabi Tel Aviv (CSKA Sofia won aggregate 4-3) Maccabi Tel Aviv's problem was their 3-0 loss last week. Today's goals were by Dor Peretz in the 12th, Ester Sokler in the 61st, Stefano Sesti with CSKA Sofia's only goal in the 66th, and an own goal by CSKA Sofia goalkeeper Fedor Lapoukhov in the 69th. CSKA Sofia went the last 20+ minutes without allowing a goal to win the aggregate in regulation. Their Conference League Playoff Round opponent was decided today when Lugano of Switzerland got a 2-2 draw at NSI Runavik of Faroe Islands to win the aggregate 4-2. Lugano will host the first leg on 20 August, with the second leg at a neutral site on 27 August. I am expecting Lugano to advance over Maccabi Tel Aviv, but I feel more hopeful than after Maccabi Tel Aviv's 3-0 loss last week. Maccabi Tel Aviv had 65 percent of possession, 57.7 percent of shots (15 to 11), 62.5 percent of shots on target (5 to 3), a higher percent of shots that were on target (5/15 = 33.3 percent to 3/11 = 27.3 percent), 75 percent of corner kicks (6 to 2), 50 percent of yellow cards (3 to 3), 60 percent of offsides (3 to 2), 52.8 percent of free kicks (19 to 17), 56.8 percent of combined corner kicks and free kicks (25 to 19), 65.5 percent of throw ins (19 to 10), and 35.3 percent of fouls (12 to 22). Normally fouls are close to opponent's free kicks, but in this case Maccabi Tel Aviv committed 10 fewer fouls, but got only 2 more free kicks. Conference League Third Qualifying Round second leg: Austria Vienna 1-2 Beitar Jerusalem (3-3 aggregate, Austria Vienna won penalty kicks 4-2) Both clubs were 2-1 away (or at a neutral site instead of Jerusalem), and nobody scored in extra time. Beitar Jerusalem shot second, and failed on their third and fourth attempts. Austria Vienna scored on the fifth attempt to win, with Beitar Jerusalem not getting their fifth attempt. In regulation, the goals were by Beitar Jerusalem's Omer Atzili in the 32nd, Beitar Jerusalem's Johnbosco Kalu in the 56th to lead the aggregate, but the aggregate was quickly tied by Austria Vienna's Kelvin Boateng in the 58th. Beitar Jerusalem had better statistics, and more statistics were available than for CSKA Sofia vs. Maccabi Tel Aviv. Beitar Jerusalem had 55.2 percent of expected goals (1.70 to 1.38), 66 percent of possesion, 71.4 percent of shots (20 to 8), 69.2 percent of shots on target (9 to 4), 66.7 percent of big chances (4 to 2), 66.8 percent of attempted passes (766 to 380), 70.7 percent of completed passes (657 to 272), a higher pass completion percentage (657/766 = 85.8 percent to 272/380 = 71.6 percent), 66.8 percent of expected goals on target (2.64 to 1.31), 71.4 percent of shots inside the box (10 to 4), 77.8 percent of corner kicks (7 to 2), 54.7 percent of combined corner kicks and free kicks (29 to 24), 67.3 percent of touches in opposition box (35 to 17), 47.0 percent of attempted long passes (62 to 70), 56.7 percent of completed long passes (34 to 26), a higher long pass completion percentage (34/62 = 54.8 percent to 26/70 = 37.1 percent), 56.4 percent of attempted passes in the final third (132 to 102), 64.6 percent of completed passes in the final third (93 to 51), a higher pass in the final third completion percentage (93/132 = 70.5 percent to 51/102 = 50 percent), 55.9 percent of attempted crosses (19 to 15), 70 percent of completed crosses (7 to 3), a higher cross completion percentage (7/19 = 36.8 percent to 3/15 = 20 percent), 59.4 percent of expected assists (1.49 to 1.02), 45.8 percent of attempted tackles (22 to 26), 40 percent of successful tackles (10 to 15), a lower tackle success percentage (10/22 = 45.5 percent to 15/26 = 57.7 percent), 54.3 percent of duels won (69 to 58), 54.1 percent of clearances (33 to 28), 45.7 percent of interceptions (16 to 19), and 30 percent of saves (3 to 7). The clubs tied with 0 red cards, 0 penalty kicks, 4 yellow cards, 22 free kicks, 22 fouls, and 10 goal kicks. Beitar Jerusalem had the only error leading to a goal, which eliminated them, although Braga of Portugal would have made it extremely unlikely for Beitar Jerusalem to reach the League Phase even if they advanced today. In the country coefficients for the last four complete seasons and this season so far, Israel is 24th with 23.375. Israel is the only country ranked 22nd or worse with at least 3 remaining clubs. Beitar Jerusalem is Israel's only eliminated club. For this season, Israel is tied with Denmark for 15th with 2.625. Israeli clubs have 10 wins, 1 draw, and 5 losses.