The Israel National Team played to a goalless draw with Kosovo to collect their first point of the 2026 Nations League campaign. Ran Ben Shimon made wholesale changes to his starting lineup, most notably keeper Assaf Tzur who proved to be up to the task and started in goal in place of the injured Daniel Peretz who returned to England and Omri Glazer who was ill.

However, while Tzur was able to record a clean sheet so did Kosovo as the attacking changes that Ben Shimon had made with Tai Baribo, Liel Abada and Eitan Azulay did not produce any results as the blue-and-white settled for point for their efforts.

“We needed to get a point and the guys played great,” Ben Shimon said following the game. “We had to work very hard, but I also saw four 100% clear chances to score but unfortunately we weren’t able to. The group is still wide open and there is something to play for. I saw some character in the team. We have no excuses we have to show up and do the best we can.”

Manor Solomon spoke about the draw, “It was very important to earn back some honor and we played well in this game but we couldn’t score. We are disappointed but we earned a point and we keep going. There are days like this when things don’t click on offense and that includes me. It’s not easy to play so many games in a short period of time but this is our job. We really wanted to win. We will be a totally different team when we face Ireland again.”