Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem's first taste of European football has arrived with a twist worthy of a soap opera: reduced to ten players before the half-hour mark, the reigning Israeli women's champions were still leading PAOK 1-0 at half-time in their Champions League qualifying semi-final in Veria, Greece, according to ONE.

The Greek city is hosting one of five four-team mini-tournaments that make up the first qualifying round of the 2026-27 UEFA Women's Champions League, with only the winner of each group advancing to the second qualifying round. PAOK, as hosts, drew Jerusalem in one semi-final on Wednesday, while Montenegro's Budućnost Podgorica met Azerbaijan's Neftçi Baku in the other.

Jerusalem's evening got complicated in the 19th minute, when goalkeeper Daniela Solera was shown a straight red card for handling the ball outside her penalty area, ONE reported. It left the Israeli side to see out the rest of the half, and potentially far more, with ten women on the pitch against a full PAOK line-up on home soil.

Replacement keeper Lili Tzuk was thrown in immediately and had to be alert from the restart. In the 22nd minute she turned away a direct free kick from PAOK's Maria Mitko, and by the 37th she was called upon again, this time keeping out a header from the hosts, per ONE's live coverage.

Rather than retreat behind the ball with a player down, Jerusalem kept pushing forward. In the 38th minute Hili Shalom worked an opening down the right and squared for Smadar Cohen, whose effort was saved not once but twice by the PAOK goalkeeper, ONE reported.

The breakthrough came three minutes later. ONE reported that a Jerusalem player identified in its coverage only by the surname Gakoni headed the visitors into a 1-0 lead in the 41st minute — a startling scoreline given the numerical disadvantage.

That is the position ONE's report describes at the interval, and it should be read as exactly that: a half-time snapshot, not a final result. The full-time score was not yet available at the time of writing.

The stakes are unusually high for an Israeli women's club appearing at this level for the first time. Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem won the 2025-26 Israeli Women's Premier League, the club's maiden top-flight title and the first won by a Jerusalem-based women's team, after three straight runner-up finishes. This tie in Veria is the reward: a European debut, with a place in the Champions League's second qualifying round on offer to whoever tops the four-team group.

In the parallel semi-final, Neftçi Baku eliminated Budućnost Podgorica on penalties after a goalless draw, putting the Azerbaijani side into Saturday's mini-tournament final regardless of what happens between PAOK and Jerusalem. The winner of Wednesday's tie in Veria will face Neftçi on July 25, with that final's winner progressing into the Champions League path proper.

For a club that only formed its senior women's section in 2020 and climbed from the third tier to an Israeli title in five seasons, simply being in Veria with a half-time lead — even with ten players — already counts as a landmark night. Confirmation of the full-time score, and of whether Jerusalem's European adventure continues past round one, will follow once it is verified.