Ran Kojok did not try to hide the scale of what is in front of his team. "We're putting all our energy into winning and becoming part of the Champions League," the Hapoel Be'er Sheva coach told reporters ahead of Tuesday's Champions League play-off second leg against Sabah, a match that could send the Israeli champions into Europe's elite club competition for the first time in their history.
Hapoel travel to Baku holding a 2-1 advantage from last week's first leg in Bucharest, where Sabah's Veljko Simic put the Azerbaijani side ahead inside six minutes before goals from Yashu Iset and Igor Zlatanovic turned the match around. That result leaves Kojok's squad needing only to avoid a heavy defeat to reach the league phase for the first time in club history.
Kojok was careful not to let the first-leg lead breed complacency. He pointed to Sabah's home advantage as a genuine threat and said the club would look to add further reinforcements before the transfer window closes, telling reporters the squad wants "to strengthen in the next week and a half with more players" regardless of Tuesday's outcome.
Goalkeeper Ofir Martziano, capped 40 times for Israel and back at Be'er Sheva after spells at Hibernian and PSV Eindhoven, echoed his coach's tone. "Reaching the Champions League would be one of the happiest moments for me and for everyone at the club," he said, while cautioning that "we're only halfway there" with the second leg still to be won.
The stakes are historic for a club that has never featured in the Champions League group, now league, phase. Hapoel reached this play-off round by eliminating Vikingur Reykjavik and then Red Star Belgrade 3-0 on aggregate, a run that has already outstripped the club's previous best European campaigns.
Sabah are no pushovers themselves. The Azerbaijani side, who play their home European fixtures at the Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium in Baku, beat TNS, KuPS and Aarhus on their own route to the play-off and are likewise chasing a first appearance in the competition's league phase.
Kickoff for Tuesday's second leg is set for 19:45 Israel time in Baku. Kojok's message to his squad, according to ONE, was straightforward: arrive fully fit, respect the occasion, and finish what the team started in Bucharest.
A win or a draw, or even a narrow defeat, would be enough to send Hapoel through on aggregate — a result that would guarantee Israeli football a place in the Champions League league phase for the first time and a significant financial windfall from UEFA's prize pool.
