Hapoel Tel Aviv end a 12-year absence from European competition on Thursday when they open their Conference League second qualifying round tie against Bulgaria's Ludogorets Razgrad — a side head coach Elyaniv Barda rates as good as anything the Champions League has to offer.
"I expect a good match against an excellent opponent, a Champions League-level team," Barda said this week, according to ONE. "We'll try to do our best."
The first leg kicks off Thursday at 21:30 Israel time, but not in Tel Aviv. Like other Israeli clubs competing in Europe amid the ongoing security situation, Hapoel will play as the nominal home side at a neutral ground abroad — in this case the DVTK Stadion (Diósgyőri Stadion) in Miskolc, Hungary.
Barda made clear the club would have preferred otherwise. "We would have been very happy to host at home in Tel Aviv, but unfortunately this is the situation we cannot change," he said.
It marks Hapoel's first continental fixture since their 2014-15 Europa League exit to Kazakhstan's Astana in the second qualifying round — a 12-year gap that has left the club starved of European nights even as fierce rivals Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa have continued to feature regularly.
Ludogorets arrive as a considerably more experienced European operator, having reached the group or knockout stage of a continental competition in ten straight seasons. Domestically, though, the Bulgarians enter this tie in transition: they finished third in last season's league, ending a run of 14 consecutive Bulgarian championships, and appointed a new manager over the summer. Israeli outlets including Sport1 and Walla described the draw as among the toughest Hapoel could have received.
Captain Omri Altman struck a more defiant tone than his coach about the away-from-home arrangement. "I'm certain from the first minute we'll feel at home, with 6-7 thousand fans coming from Israel," he said, per ONE — a figure referring to travelling Hapoel supporters rather than the ground's total capacity.
The tie is a two-legged affair: Thursday's opener in Hungary is followed by the return leg in Bulgaria on July 30. The winner advances to the third qualifying round, one step closer to the Conference League's lucrative league phase.
For a club that has spent over a decade watching Europe from the outside, even a tough draw against a battle-hardened Bulgarian side represents a chance simply to be back in the conversation.
