Maccabi Haifa blanked Hapoel Beer Sheva 3-0 in the Toto Cup European Match which sees the Greens move into the semifinals of the preseason competition. Dean David scored in the first half while Gadi Kinda and Dia Saba found the back of the goal in the second to take the win.

The game was used a as tune-up for both squads as they ready for their respective UEFA Conference League second round qualifiers this coming week as Haifa will face Azerbaijani outfit FC Sabah while the southern reds will play PFC Cherno More from Bulgaria.

Last week, the Israel Super Cup which was won by Maccabi Tel Aviv over Maccabi Petach Tikva was not only the first trophy awarded for the new season and the yellow-and-blue moved into the Toto Cup semifinals as well, it was also good preparation for both clubs ahead of their European matches. Coming up this week Maccabi Tel Aviv will be playing UEFA Champions League second round qualifying against Fotbal Club FCSB, formerly named and still sometimes referred to as FC Steaua București while Maccabi Petach Tikva will take on SC Braga in Europa League qualifying.

After an opening 35 minutes of back and forth play, Pierre Cornud sent Muhammed Jaber a terrific ball but his poor shot was jumped on by David who put it home to give Barak Bachar’s team a 1-0 lead of the halftime break.

In the 60th minute Gadi Kinda took advantage Frantdzy Pierrot miss to double the greens advantage while Dia Saba jumped all over a rebound off an Ilay Hagag attempt to give his side a 3-0 lead and the win.

“First of all I will start with something important,” Maccabi Haifa head coach Barak Bachar began. “I will commemorate a fan who fell and today it is the late Yaron Zohar who was an outstanding soldier in Golani’s 13th Battalion. He fought for hours against terrorists and killed dozens of them, but shrapnel hit him from an IED and was killed on the spot. Since his childhood he was a Maccabi Haifa supporter, he did not miss a beat not even one of the club’s game.”

The Haifa bench boss continued, ”We just started the season and we’re only in training camp, but on Wednesday we are flying to our first game and our first mission of the campaign. We have a difficult game against a strong team and the goal is to pass that first test. I expect to see improvement from game to game. We got smashed by the Olympic team in our first game against them but then the next time we played them we saw some better things. There were good things from this game as well where we played fine and achieved an important victory.”

“When you make mistakes you pay, against any team,” Beer Sheva head coach Ron Kozuk said. “We have to continue to work hard and train. There were some bright spots, at the beginning of the game we stuck to our principles and created half chances, but you have to do it throughout the game. There were many things I liked in the game, we pressed Haifa and sometimes won the ball, but there is no doubt that there is a lot to work on and we also have to bring in more quality from abroad.”

Lior Refaelov looked back at the victory, “First game of the season and it was very hot but we came into the game and we were able to win. There were things that just plain and simple worked for us and those were some things that we had worked on at the training camp. All in all, we could have scored more goals.”

Guy Badash spoke after the game, “We didn’t want to open the season like that. In the first half there were some good things that we have been working on with the coach but we need to improve without a doubt, but there are also good things.”

Next up for Haifa is a date with FC Sabah on Thursday in second round Conference League qualifying as the Azerbaijani club, founded in 2017 will be making only their second European appearance after participating in Conference League qualifying last year where they defeated RFS from Riga, Latvia but ultimately fell to Partizan Belgrade on penalties in their two-legged tie.

Hapoel Beer Sheva will take on Cherno More Varna on Thursday in second round Conference League qualifying as the southern reds will face a team that was founded 113 years ago and opened their Bulgarian season with a goalless draw against CSKA 1948. The last time Cherno played in Europe was back in 2015 in Europa League qualifying when they fell to Dinamo Minsk. Interestingly enough the Bulgarians defeated Maccabi Netanya 3-1 on aggregate in UEFA Cup qualifying back in 2008.

Maccabi Tel Aviv will be playing Fotbal Club FCSB in Bucharest on Tuesday in second round Champions League qualifying as the Romanian club comes in after knocking off Virtus from San Marino 11-1 on aggregate in the first round. The club formerly known as Steaua Bucharest has a rich history in European play having won the European Cup in the 1985-86 season over Barcelona on penalties.

Finally, Maccabi Petach Tikva will have a very tough time on Thursday against Portuguese powerhouse Braga who just last year played in the Champions League group stages.