Hapoel Beer Sheva head into the biggest European fixture of their season on Tuesday, hosting Red Star Belgrade in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, with a place in the playoff round — and a shot at the competition's league phase for the first time in the club's history — on the line.
The southern club arrive on the back of a 2-0 aggregate win over Víkingur Reykjavík, a result that has already guaranteed Beer Sheva a minimum of Conference League group-stage football this season regardless of what happens against the Serbian giants.
The first leg kicks off Tuesday at 20:30 local time, played on what is designated as Beer Sheva's home ground in Hungary. The return leg follows a week later in Belgrade, on August 11 at 21:00.
The stakes go beyond simply advancing: whichever side goes through will face the winner of Aarhus of Denmark and Azerbaijan's Sabah in the playoff round, and will do so with seeded status inherited from Red Star's considerably higher European coefficient — a meaningful structural edge in the draw.
Red Star travel with a squad that includes Mohamed Abu Fani, familiar to Israeli fans from his time at Maccabi Haifa, and are led by 37-year-old Austrian forward Marco Arnautovic, his country's all-time leading scorer. Israeli pundit Gai Tzarfati said this week he believes "Hapoel Beer Sheva can advance past Red Star," a view echoed across the Israeli sports press ahead of kickoff.
While Beer Sheva's squad focuses on Belgrade, attention in England remains fixed on Manor Solomon, whose push to leave Tottenham Hotspur this summer has intensified. Head coach Roberto De Zerbi has told the Israeli winger he is not part of his plans for the season, despite Solomon featuring in Spurs' pre-season fixtures.
Solomon's agent, Ronen Katzav, has been unusually blunt in public. "The goal will be a permanent transfer, not a loan," Katzav said, adding that "statistically speaking, the last week of the window is the busiest" — a signal that a deal may not be resolved quickly.
Katzav went further on his client's standing at Tottenham: "He wants to be dominant and make an impact, and that probably won't happen at Tottenham. It doesn't seem like the right place for him, and they've given up on him too easily along the way."
West Ham United have emerged as the club most actively engaged, with reports in England indicating the two sides are in talks over a permanent deal and that clarity on whether it can progress could come within 48 to 72 hours. Other reporting suggests the move could just as easily slide until closer to the September 1 deadline, with Solomon's camp keen to weigh all options first.
ONE's live "Chat of the Day" broadcast tied the two stories together on Tuesday, running both the Beer Sheva build-up and the latest on Solomon's situation alongside brief speculation about judoka-turned-federation-official Oren Smadja possibly moving into politics — chatter the program flagged without further detail.
For Beer Sheva, Tuesday's opening leg represents the most concrete of the week's storylines: a result on the pitch in Hungary that will shape their European campaign, even as the Solomon transfer saga in England continues to play out in agents' statements and takeover talks rather than a signed contract.
