Israel's push for a place in this season's European group stages comes down to one frantic week — and Tuesday brings the first verdict. Hapoel Be'er Sheva travel to Baku to defend a 2-1 aggregate lead over Sabah FK in the Champions League playoff round, with kickoff at 19:45 and a first-ever league-phase berth on the line.
Israeli bookmaker Winner does not see that lead as decisive, ONE reports. Sabah are priced at just 1.75 to overturn the deficit and go through, with a Hapoel Be'er Sheva win quoted at 3.30 and the draw at 3.35 — odds that make the Azerbaijani champions clear favourites even though they trail on aggregate.
Be'er Sheva won the first leg 2-1 in Bucharest, coming from behind after Veljko Simić's early opener; Javon East equalised just before half-time and Igor Zlatanovic struck the winner late on. Tuesday's return is being played at Sabah's own Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium in Baku, since it is Sabah, not Hapoel, who host the second leg.
Two more Israeli clubs face their own European deciders on Thursday, both trying to overturn first-leg deficits. Maccabi Tel Aviv lost 2-1 away to FC Lugano in the Conference League playoff — Ido Shahar's equaliser cancelled out by Anto Grgić's penalty — and must win the return leg to stay in Europe.
According to ONE, Winner has Maccabi as modest favourites for that job: 2.10 to beat Lugano, with the Swiss side priced at 2.70 and the draw at 3.05 — a tie the bookmaker still rates as competitive despite the deficit.
Hapoel Tel Aviv, by contrast, go into their second leg unbeaten. They held Atalanta scoreless in Bergamo, resisting heavy Italian pressure — Atalanta had roughly two-thirds of the possession — to keep the Conference League tie level at 0-0.
That resistance has done little to shift the market. ONE reports Atalanta remain strong favourites at 1.50 to close out the tie, while Hapoel Tel Aviv — despite outlasting one of Serie A's leading clubs for 90 minutes — are priced at 4.50, odds the outlet itself flags as surprisingly long given how the first leg actually played out.
As with Be'er Sheva's trip to Baku, neither of Thursday's "home" legs for the Tel Aviv clubs will be played on Israeli soil. Hapoel Tel Aviv host Atalanta in Miskolc, Hungary, continuing the now-standard practice of Israeli clubs staging home European fixtures abroad for security reasons.
Between them, the three ties will decide how many Israeli clubs reach the league phase of Europe's top two competitions this season — a rare week in which the country's leading sides all face a knockout cliff-edge within days of one another.
