Israeli women's football steps onto a European stage for the first time this evening, when Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem face PAOK Thessaloniki in Veria, Greece, in a knockout tie that decides who advances in the club's debut UEFA Women's Champions League campaign.
Kick-off is 17:30 CEST (18:30 Israel time) at the Veria Municipal Stadium, roughly 75 kilometres from PAOK's home city, with the Greek champions standing as the clear obstacle between Jerusalem and a place in the next round of the competition's opening qualifying stage.
The tie is one half of a four-team mini-tournament format UEFA uses at this level. Neftçi Baku of Azerbaijan met Montenegro's Budućnost Podgorica in the other semi-final earlier in the day, also in Veria. The two winners will meet in Saturday's final on July 25, with the beaten semi-finalists playing off for third place the same afternoon — Hapoel's reward for advancing would be another shot at reaching the competition's league phase; defeat would still leave a consolation match to close out the trip.
Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem arrive in Greece as newly minted champions of Israel. The club, formed as a senior women's side only in 2020 and built from the fan-owned Hapoel Jerusalem project, won the 2025–26 Israeli Women's Premier League — its first top-flight title after three straight runner-up finishes — and that breakthrough is what has carried it into continental competition for the first time.
According to ONE, manager Tsach Shamroni has treated the build-up with the seriousness the occasion demands, having his staff review eight full recordings of PAOK matches and running double training sessions through a three-week preparation camp before flying the squad to Greece.
"We arrive with the goal of winning," Shamroni said, per ONE's report. "Currently all focus is solely on PAOK."
The 18-player squad for the trip includes several new signings brought in to strengthen the group for its European debut — goalkeeper Daniela Solera, defender Tal Feingesicht and midfielder Ella Ben-Tzvi among them, with a forward listed by the outlet as Reyza also part of the squad, though the transliteration of that name could not be independently confirmed.
Missing from the group is Doris Boaduwaa, the Ghanaian forward who was central to Hapoel's title-winning campaign. She is on international duty instead, part of Ghana's Black Queens squad preparing for the 2026 Women's Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, which kicks off on July 25 — the same day Hapoel's own mini-tournament in Veria concludes.
PAOK, by contrast, are established regulars on this stage, having represented Greece in Women's Champions League qualifying for several seasons running, which makes Jerusalem's task in its first continental fixture a genuinely difficult one against a side with far more European pedigree.
Whatever happens on the pitch tonight, Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem have already made history simply by getting here — the first Israeli women's team ever to compete in a UEFA Women's Champions League qualifying tie, a landmark for a club that only fielded its senior side for the first time six years ago.
