Hapoel Beer Sheva was eliminated from UEFA Europa League contention as they fell to Levski Sofia 1-1 (3-1 on penalties) in their two legged first round qualifying tie as the southern reds will now drop down to the second round of the Conference League where they will face AEK Athens.

Ran Kozuk’s team came into the second leg at the Nyíregyházi Stadion in Hungary after a 0-0 draw in the first match between the two clubs in Bulgaria as both sides once agin produced very few scoring chances as the match went into extra-time goalless. Alon Turgeman, who can off of the bench finally broke the 180+ minute deadlock at the end of first extra-time period but a second yellow card due to a late tackle by Beer Sheva’s Brazilian midfielder Lucas Ventura saw the reds reduced to ten-men in the 109th minute.

From that point, Sofia pressed for the equalizer and found it within five minutes as Mustapha Sangare was left all alone in the box and easily beat keeper Niv Elias to knot the game up at 1-1. From there the contest moved to a penalty shootout which saw Beer Sheva miss there straight spot kicks by Eylon Almog, Kings Kangwa and Turgeman as Sangare slotted home the winning penalty and bounce the southern reds out of the Europa League.

“It’s not a shock that we were eliminated, but it’s a bad feeling, “Kozuk said after the disappointing defeat. “We played a good game here that we should have won but losing a player in extra-time gave Sangare and Levski confidence. We weren’t able to prevent them from scoring and we conceded. We had a lot of chances that should have ended in goal, but at the end of teh day it came down to penalties. It’s awful feeling but that is the result and now we’ll deal with it.”

Next week, Hapoel Beer Sheva will visit Greece and AEK Athens in the first leg of second round Conference League qualifying and will meet up with a very strong side that features former Maccabi Haifa striker Frantzdy Pierrot as well as English Premier League stalwarts in Anthony Martial and Erik Lamela. Head Coach Marko Nikolic’s side has played in the Europa League groups stages twice in the past few years and also featured in the Champions League back in 2018.

Kozuk also commented on the challenge ahead, “First of all, we have to remember that neither Shai Elias nor Eliel Peretz were available for the second leg so we know that we will be stronger in some positions. We have to gather the players up and see how we will get a good result against AEK. It’s clear that they are fantastic, very strong and while I don’t want to call them the favorites or not, AEK has already proven that they can do a thing or two.”

In other upcoming European action, Maccabi Tel Aviv will begin their Champions League journey when they visit Pafos FC on Tuesday in Cyrus for first leg, second round qualifying action. Maccabi, who are coming off a 2-1 loss to Hapoel Beer Sheva in the Israel Super Cup are still in the process of putting the final touches on their roster for the new season.

However, there are still plenty of regulars available for Head Coach Zarko Lazetic including Dor Turgeman, Roy Revivo, Ido Shachar as well as Dor Peretz, Sagiv Yehezkel and Osher Davida. As for foreigners, the yellow-and-blue will have Weslley Patati, Tyrese Asante along with newcomers Ion Nicolaescu and Heitor for the two-legged tie. Pafos feature a familiar name in former Maccabi central defender Derrick Luckassen on their roster of players.

Maccabi Haifa will take on Torpedo-Belaz FC in the second round of Conference League qualifying with the first leg taking place in Hungary as a home match for the Belarusian club that will be played without fans. The second leg will be Haifa’s home game and will be played in Kisvarda, Hungary the following week. Torpedo-Belaz defeated Rabotnicki 4-0 in aggregate in the first leg as former Hapoel Hadera forward Steven Alfred scored two of the club’s goals.

Beitar Jerusalem will match up against Sutjeska-Nikšić FC in their second round Conference League qualifying tie as the Montenegrin squad disposed of Dynamo-Brest 3-2 on aggregate. Vasilije Cavor scored in the 89th minute to send the Niksic based club into the next round of qualifying. The yellow-and-black, who just unveiled their new kits for the 2025/26 season have a well rounded roster under Barak Itzhaki including Yarden Shua, Omer Atzily and Dor Micha to go along with Portuguese keeper Miguel Silva. They will be attempting to advance to the group stages of a European competition for the first time since 1995 when they played in the Intertoto Cup. The closest they have gotten since was in 2016 when they were just win away from the Europa League group stages but fell to Saint-Etienne in the playoff round of the competition.