Maccabi Tel Aviv crashed out of European competition when they drew 1-1, 3-2 on aggregate with Lugano as the yellow-and-blue were eliminated from UEFA Conference League contention and will not feature in the league stage.

After a goalless first half that produced few chances by both sides, Lugano saw Mattia Zanotti sent off due to second yellow card in the 58th minute leaving the visitors with just ten men. Maccabi took advantage of the situation as Renato Steffen tripped up Elad Madmon in the box good for a penalty that Dor Peretz slotted to home to give the yellow-and-blue a 1-0 lead.

However, Dereck Moncada cruised into the Maccabi half of the pitch went by Noam Ben Harush, beat a few more players and then slammed the ball past Ofek Melika to draw even at 1-1 and take a 3-2 lead on aggregate in the 79th minute. Kenny Miller’s squad tried to find the back of the Lugano goal to no avail as time ran out and Maccabi were sent packing.

“To say that I’m disappointed would be an understatement,” Miller began after the match. “We didn’t do enough tonight to win the game. We lost concentration at critical moments towards the end of the match, when everything was in our hands. In the final 15 minutes, we didn’t do enough to create chances or defend against their transition play.

“All we needed to do at the end was stop their transitions, finish our attacks and be a little more creative. If we had gone two goals ahead, it would have been a death blow for Lugano, but we didn’t take advantage of it. We gave them the chance to throw players forward and play on the counterattack.”