Beitar Jerusalem's push into Europe this evening runs into a Cypriot club being remade in the image of a coach who has built a chunk of his footballing identity around loathing the Spanish passing game.
AEK Larnaca host Beitar in the second qualifying round of the Conference League on Thursday, kicking off at 19:30 in Larnaca. The return leg is set for July 30 in Ploiești, Romania — Beitar's designated neutral venue for European home fixtures.
The Larnaca dugout is now occupied by Mauro Camoranesi, 49, born in Tandil, Argentina, but capped 55 times by Italy — with whom he won the 2006 World Cup — after a decade in Serie A spent mostly at Juventus following his move from Hellas Verona in 2000.
Camoranesi was named AEK Larnaca's head coach on July 1 on a contract running through May 2027, taking charge of a club that finished runner-up in the Cypriot league last season and reached the Conference League round of 16 before losing to eventual champions Crystal Palace.
His coaching résumé since retiring has been a winding one: spells in Mexico and Argentina, Slovenia's Tabor Sežana and then Maribor, where he was sacked after six months, a week as Igor Tudor's assistant at Marseille before being replaced, and two seasons at Malta's Floriana, where he lost a cup final on penalties before leaving in 2024.
What runs through all of it, according to ONE, is an open contempt for possession football of the kind Spain has made its trademark. Camoranesi has been quoted as saying Italians "get bored watching Spain — thousands of passes back and forth," adding that he doesn't like "patient football" and wants his teams to reach goal "as fast as possible, with the fewest touches possible."
The timing gives the line extra bite. Spain won the 2026 World Cup on July 19, beating Camoranesi's native Argentina 1-0 in the final on a Ferran Torres extra-time strike — a result that stung plenty of Argentines just days before their compatriot-turned-Italian faces an Israeli club with a Spanish-style pedigree of its own.
Beitar arrive in Cyprus under their own new management. Almog Cohen, previously the club's sporting director, was elevated to head coach on May 31 after Barak Yitzhaki's exit, and tonight's qualifier is the first serious European test of his early tenure.
Cohen will be without several key names. Defender Luka Gadrani remains sidelined by a shin injury picked up on international duty with Georgia and has not trained with the squad, while Adi Yona and Tomer Yosephi are also out. Gil Cohen or Liel Darei is expected to partner Brian Rabello in central defense, with Omer Atzili more likely to start from the bench than in the XI.
It sets up a stylistic mismatch as much as a sporting one — an Argentine World Cup winner preaching directness against an Israeli club trying to find its footing under a rookie coach, with a Conference League place on the line over two legs.
