A trio of Israeli teams played the first leg of second round UEFA Conference League qualifying on Thursday night.

Maccabi Tel Aviv eased by Petrocub 3-0 in a game that could have finished by an even higher margin. The yellow-and-blue dominated play throughout the 90 minutes as Dan Bitton scored a blistering free kick to give the hosts a 1-0 lead while Eran Zahavi with a left footed strike and Dor Peretz from in close off a Djorde Jovanovic ball closed out the victory. Maccabi will now travel to Moldova for the second leg next Thursday as they will look to advance to the third round where they will play the winner of the Torpedo-Belaz Zhodino and AEK Larnaca tie.

“Some parts of the game were good and when you win 3-0 it’s always nice,” head coach Robbie Keane said. “I wasn’t too pleased with the first half, the energy wasn’t there as much as I would have liked, but we have to give them credit as they defended well with everyone behind the ball and we had to find solutions. We could have scored more goals and we didn’t manage to kill off the game earlier when we could have scored more.”

Dor Peretz who scored the third goal also spoke about the victory, “It’s good the game ended this way it did with a goal but we still need to work on our play and our passing game. We controlled the pace of play for parts of the game but we gave up the ball at times and we madd some mistakes that we would pay for perhaps in other games. But all in all it was a good start and we are satisfied with that.”

Beitar Jerusalem played to a goalless draw against PAOK Thessaloniki in Greece as keeper Miguel Silva saved a penalty and they will now look to move onto the second round when the two sides meet up again nest week in Jerusalem on Thursday night. Should the yellow-and-black get by PAOK they would face Hajduk Split in the third round of qualifying.

“This happens to be one of the toughest pitches with their fans and tons of emotions,” Beitar coach Yossi Abuksis said. “I think that the players put in a game at the highest of levels and if we would have been a bit smarter on the attack we could have scored a goal or two. However, I would take this result had it been an option even before the game.”

Hapoel Beer Sheva slipped by Panevėžys 1-0 as Shai Elias scored from the top of the box in the first half to take the win as the southern reds will now ready for the return leg in Lithuania. Should Elyaniv Barda’s squad advance to the third round they will play the winner of the Shkupi 1927 and Levski Sofia matchup.

“We had something that we were missing last game,” Barda said. “There were players that gave it their all right from the get go and that’s encouraging. The 1-0 result is ok and its only the first half of the game. We still have what to work on and we have to go to Lithuania ready to go.”