Hapoel Beer Sheva defeated Sabah 2-1 as goals by Javon East and Igor Zlatanovic helped move the southern reds to within just one more game of the League Phase of the UEFA Champions League. With the one goal lead, Ran Kozuk’s squad will ready for the second leg of the two legged tie that will be held in the suburbs of Baku Azerbaijan next Tuesday night.

Sabah opened the scoring early on as Veljko Simic scores via a header off an unexpected Tymoteusz Puchacz cross to stun Beer Sheva in get 6th minute of play. However, as the half progressed, the southern reds regained their composure as they hunted for an equalizer just before the break which they found when Javon East redirected a ball in the box into the Azerbaijani goal to head into halftime deadlocked at 1-1.

Beer Sheva hunted for a go ahead goal and found it when Igor Zlatanovic headed home a magnificent Eliel Peretz corner kick to give Beer Sheva a 2-1 lead in the 80th minute and the eventual win.

“It’s great satisfaction but we are only halfway there,” Hapoel Beer Sheva Head Coach Ran Kozuk said. “We did a great job and the guys deserve huge credit, We knew that Sabah would try and get us out of usual type of play and they were able to score a critical goal very early on. We need to be modest and now go to Azerbaijan to advance to the Champions League.”