Israel’s soccer champions narrowly lose Euro spot to Scotland’s Celtic
Despite impressive 2-0 win over visiting Scots, Hapoel Beersheba loses in aggregate after last week's 5-2 trouncing in Glasgow
Israeli soccer champions Hapoel Beersheba mounted a furious but ultimately unsuccessful fightback on Tuesday to avoid being felled from the European champions league.
Beersheba defeated Scotland’s champion Celtic team 2-0, with Ben Sahar (#21) and Ovidiu Hoban (#49) each delivering a goal for Israel in the home game at Turner Stadium in the Negev metropolis.
Celtic now goes to the Champions League group stage on Tuesday despite the defeat, as it led 5-2 from last week’s first play-off leg in Glasgow against Beersheba.
The close-fought competition for a place in the Champions League made Beersheba’s Maharan Radi’s first-half penalty miss particularly costly, allowing Scotland’s team to progress 5-4 on aggregate and qualify for the group stage for the first time in three seasons.
Hapoel will now play in the UEFA Europa League.
Joining Celtic in Thursday’s Champions League draw will be two-time former winners, the Portuguese champions Porto.
About 250 Celtic fans were believed in attendance in Beersheba, along with “several thousand” Beersheba supporters, police said.
Flags
The game raised the prospect of political tension reaching onto the soccer field after Beersheba’s game in Glasgow last week saw anti-Israel activists hand Palestinian flags out to Celtic fans, who waved them as the Israelis played.
Beersheba Police said flags would not be allowed at the play-off game, and that any flags would be “confiscated immediately,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said on Monday.
“Police units will respond in order to ensure that the game will be a professional game and not a political one,” he added.
He did not specifically mention Palestinian flags.
In the end, no Palestinian flags were seen, but some Beersheba briefly waved Israeli flags in the stands.
At the Glasgow game, organizers of the group Palestine Alliance also handed out flyers about the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, which Palestinians call the “Nakba,” or “catastrophe.”
The club now faces disciplinary proceedings by European soccer’s governing body UEFA.
UEFA said the flag display constituted an “illicit banner,” under a rule which bans “messages that are of a political, ideological, religious, offensive or provocative nature.”
Celtic was fined about £16,000 ($20,900) two years ago after a Palestinian flag was displayed at a Champions League qualifier against KR Reykjavik of Iceland.
The Scottish champions have been punished eight times in five seasons by the European governing body for supporter misconduct.