Hapoel Beer Sheva slipped past Red Star Belgrade 1-0 in the first leg of third round UEFA Champions League qualifying as Zahi Ahmed scored the only goal of the match to give the southern reds hope heading into the return leg next week in Serbia to advance to the playoff round.

Head Coach Ron Kozuk’s squad played Red Star toe-to-toe as the match got underway with the southern reds making sure to keep the Serbian side’s potent offense under control. As the game moved along, Beer Sheva’s high pressure helped Red Star commit a turnover right in front of their goal that Zahi Ahmed pounced on as the striker put the ball past Matheus Magalhaes to give Kozuk’s team a 1-0 lead in the 38th minute.

With Beer Sheva nursing the slim lead, Matan Baltaxa was issued a pair of quick yellow cards, in fact, on the same play and was sent off in the 58th minute leaving the reds with ten men for more than 30 minutes. However, as tough as the challenge was down the stretch, Beer Sheva was able to hang on to take the lead into the second league going into next week’s game.

“This is only the first half,” Kozuk began. “We will need to play a super talented team at their home stadium next week. The guys really focused hard and kept to the game plan which became even more difficult after we has a player sent off. Zahi has been terrific for the past couple of seasons and he gives so much heart and leaves it all on the pitch. He deserves a huge amount of credit.”