Hapoel Beer Sheva's head coach Ran Kozuk has waved away any suggestion that facing Red Star Belgrade requires a different kind of preparation, telling ONE that his staff have approached the Champions League qualifier exactly as they would any other match.
"In principle, we prepare like for every game," Kozuk said. "We understand the opponent we face, their qualities and advantages." It is a familiar line from a coach who has spent the summer trying to keep his squad's routine unchanged even as the games get bigger.
The reigning Israeli champions travel to Belgrade for the first leg of the Champions League's third qualifying round on Tuesday, kicking off at 20:30 local time against a Red Star side that has never previously met Beer Sheva in a competitive fixture.
Kozuk described a preparation process that started inward before turning to the opposition. "First we discussed ourselves a lot, but also the Star, its advantages and significant players and the things it does very well," he said, a nod to homework on a squad regarded as the strongest continental test Beer Sheva has faced this summer.
Beer Sheva only reached this stage after a scare against Icelandic champions Víkingur Reykjavík. They lost the first leg 2:1 away, then produced a battling 2:0 win in the return fixture — played at a neutral venue in Hungary, as Israeli clubs' home European matches currently are — to advance 3:2 on aggregate.
Red Star arrive as considerably heavier favourites on paper. The Serbian champions, one of the Balkans' most storied clubs, breezed through their opening two qualifying rounds this summer without conceding, according to reports, underlining the scale of the task now facing Kozuk's side.
For Beer Sheva, simply reaching a third qualifying round represents genuine progress on the European stage, and comes on the back of a landmark domestic campaign. Kozuk led the club to the Israeli championship in May, beating rivals Maccabi Tel Aviv 4:2, a year after guiding them to the State Cup with a win over Beitar Jerusalem.
A first-leg defeat in Belgrade would not necessarily end Beer Sheva's European hopes, with the return leg still to come roughly a week later. But Kozuk's message to his players, filtered through his comments to ONE, was one of composure rather than reinvention: treat the occasion like any other, and let the preparation speak for itself.
