Hapoel Tel Aviv are through to the Conference League playoff round, but they had to survive a nervy final quarter-hour in Katowice to get there. Elyaniv Barda's side lost the second leg 2-1 to GKS Katowice on Wednesday, yet a commanding 2-0 win in the first leg was enough to carry them through 3-2 on aggregate.
Stav Turiel, who had also scored in the first leg, put Hapoel ahead in Poland in the 23rd minute, and for long spells the tie looked like a formality. Katowice needed two goals just to force extra time, and for most of the night they could not find a way through a well-organised Hapoel defence.
That changed late on. The Polish side equalised in the 83rd minute, then won and converted a penalty in the 90th to snatch a 2-1 win on the night - a genuine scare for the Israeli champions-elect of the tie, even if it ultimately changed nothing on aggregate.
"We were in control of the game for most of its stages," Barda said afterwards, reflecting on how his team had dominated for long periods before the late wobble. "The main thing is that we advanced." According to ONE, the coach acknowledged his side lost some composure as Katowice pushed forward in the closing minutes, allowing the hosts back into the tie before the final whistle confirmed Hapoel's progress.
The aggregate win completes a job that was effectively sealed a week earlier. Hapoel beat Katowice 2-0 in the first leg, played at a neutral venue in Miskolc, Hungary, with Turiel opening the scoring in the seventh minute before Roi Alkoukin doubled the lead six minutes later - a professional, largely comfortable night that made Wednesday's away leg more of a formality than it eventually felt.
Hapoel's home matches in this campaign have been staged in Hungary rather than at Bloomfield Stadium, a continuation of the arrangement Israeli clubs have used in continental competition amid the security situation at home. It has not stopped them advancing.
The reward - and the challenge - is a playoff tie against Atalanta, the Italian Serie A side dropping down from a higher continental competition. The first leg is scheduled for Bergamo on Thursday, August 20, with the return leg back in Miskolc a week later, on August 27.
It is by some distance the toughest test remaining on Hapoel's route into the Conference League league phase, against a club with regular Champions League and Europa League pedigree in recent seasons. But after seeing off Ludogorets and now Katowice across the qualifying rounds, Barda's squad have already shown they will not be overawed by the occasion.
