Mauro Camoranesi's AEK Larnaca travel to Ploiești, Romania, on Thursday evening chasing something the Cypriot club have never once managed in Europe: overturning a first-leg deficit. A week after losing 1-0 at home to Beitar Jerusalem in the second qualifying round of the Conference League, Larnaca know that anything less than victory ends their campaign.
The tie carries an unusual backdrop. UEFA continues to bar competitive matches from being staged inside Israel this season because of the security situation, so Beitar are hosting their leg roughly 2,500 kilometres from Jerusalem, at Ploiești's Ilie Oană Stadium — the workaround Israeli clubs have used throughout this summer's qualifying rounds.
On the pitch, Beitar arrive with both the aggregate lead and the stronger claim to it. Colombian centre-back Brayan Carabalí settled last Thursday's first leg in Larnaca with a curling free-kick in the 77th minute, moments after AEK were reduced to ten men when defender Mike van der Hoorn was sent off for hauling down forward Timothy Muzie as he broke clear on goal.
Beitar were the sharper side well before the red card, too, finishing the night with 16 shots to AEK's three and 64% of possession — numbers that will have done little to settle nerves in Larnaca this week.
AEK had their moments in the first half, with Imad Faraj Layouni striking a post and Ilija Bajić heading against the opposite upright from the rebound, but could not turn territory into a goal. They now face the harder of the two remaining outcomes: with away goals no longer doubling as a tiebreaker under UEFA's rules, a repeat 1-0 scoreline for the Cypriots would send the tie to extra time, while nothing less than a two-goal winning margin sends Beitar out in normal time.
ONE reports that history is squarely against Camoranesi's team: in every previous European tie where AEK Larnaca lost the first leg, they have gone out. The Cypriot outlet's coverage still struck a defiant note, framing Thursday's task as an attempt to "climb a mountain" and citing the domestic view that "every situation has a first occurrence" and that Camoranesi's players "believed and continue believing strongly in their capabilities."
Camoranesi, the 2006 World Cup winner with Italy and a Juventus favourite as a player, will go into the second leg without Van der Hoorn, who is suspended after his sending-off, leaving Hrvoje Milićević to help marshal a defence that has already shown it can be exposed by Beitar's directness and set-piece threat.
For Beitar, closing out the tie would extend a European run the club's supporters have craved and add to what has already been a strong week for Israeli sides in continental qualifying. A place in the Conference League's third qualifying round — with the prize money and exposure that comes with it — is one result away, though Jerusalem will be wary of a Larnaca side with nothing left to lose on Thursday night.
