{"id":187627,"date":"2026-08-10T18:42:44","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T18:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/?p=187627"},"modified":"2026-08-10T18:46:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T18:46:16","slug":"playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing a very good team: Kozuk and Hapoel Beer Sheva prepare for Red Star in UCL 3rd Round qualifying"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hapoel Beer Sheva will take on Red Star Belgrade in UEFA Champions League third round second leg action on Tuesday night at the Marakana Stadium for a ticket to the playoff round of the competition after having beaten the Serbian side 1-0 in the first contest between the two. <\/p>\n

Should Beer Sheva advance to the playoff round they will face the winner of the Sabah and Aarhus matchup with a victory sending them to the Champions League league phase and a loss dropping them to the league phase of the Europa League. If they lose to Red Star in their current two legged tie, they will drop to the playoff round of the Europa League where they would play Viktoria Plzen for a place in that competitions\u2019s league phase and should they come up short to the Czechia side they will participate in the Conference League\u2019s league phase.
\n

\"\"

Igor Zlatanovic – Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\nHead Coach Ron Kozuk spoke about the upcoming clash, \u201cWe are aware of what we will face on Tuesday. I think there has been a lot of talk about the atmosphere and the fans, but first and foremost we will face an excellent team and that is where our focus is above all else. Igor Zlatanovi\u0107 is one of the most important players on our team and he will have to help us in this game just as he has been doing over the past year.”<\/p>\n

As for how the club has getting ready Kozuk explained, \u201cThe preparations are basically the same preparations. On the one hand, it is much easier to prepare because we have already played one match against Red Star, so there are additional things we have discovered. But in terms of preparation, it is the same as before every game.\u201d
\n\"\"
\nKozuk is well aware of the what the team he is facing can do on the pitch, \u201cWe know we are going to play against a very high-quality team. Red Star has its qualities and I think that when they play at home, regardless of who the opponent is, they always want to be the dominant, proactive and creative team. We understand that we are going to play against a very good team and we are preparing accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hapoel Beer Sheva will take on Red Star Belgrade in UEFA Champions League third round second leg action on Tuesday night at the Marakana Stadium for a ticket to the playoff round of the competition after having beaten the Serbian side 1-0 in the first contest between the two. Should Beer Sheva advance to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":186387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[21],"class_list":["post-187627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-israel-2","tag-hapoel-beer-sheva","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nPlaying a very good team: Kozuk and Hapoel Beer Sheva prepare for Red Star in UCL 3rd Round qualifying - Sports Rabbi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Playing a very good team: Kozuk and Hapoel Beer Sheva prepare for Red Star in UCL 3rd Round qualifying - Sports Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hapoel Beer Sheva will take on Red Star Belgrade in UEFA Champions League third round second leg action on Tuesday night at the Marakana Stadium for a ticket to the playoff round of the competition after having beaten the Serbian side 1-0 in the first contest between the two. Should Beer Sheva advance to the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sports Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-10T18:42:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-10T18:46:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_1294.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"623\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joshua Halickman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joshua Halickman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Joshua Halickman\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/10150053309b5bf124d40c3812a32bf0\"},\"headline\":\"Playing a very good team: Kozuk and Hapoel Beer Sheva prepare for Red Star in UCL 3rd Round qualifying\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-10T18:42:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-10T18:46:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":405,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/IMG_1294.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"hapoel beer sheva\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Football\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\\\/\",\"name\":\"Playing a very good team: Kozuk and Hapoel Beer Sheva prepare for Red Star in UCL 3rd Round qualifying - Sports Rabbi\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/IMG_1294.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-10T18:42:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-10T18:46:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/10150053309b5bf124d40c3812a32bf0\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/IMG_1294.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/IMG_1294.jpeg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":623,\"caption\":\"Ran Kozuk - Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/\",\"name\":\"Sports Rabbi\",\"description\":\"The Home of Israeli Sports\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/10150053309b5bf124d40c3812a32bf0\",\"name\":\"Joshua Halickman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/WhatsApp-Image-2020-12-08-at-10.13.06-150x150.jpeg\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/WhatsApp-Image-2020-12-08-at-10.13.06-150x150.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/WhatsApp-Image-2020-12-08-at-10.13.06-150x150.jpeg\",\"caption\":\"Joshua Halickman\"},\"description\":\"Joshua Halickman, The Sports Rabbi is the founder of the website and has been covering Israeli sports since 2004. The Sports Rabbi has gone to over 4,000 live sporting events in 25+ countries looking for the most exciting and intriguing stories. Josh has lectured to tens of thousands across the globe about the Zionism through Israeli Sports. You can follow Josh on Twitter @thesportsrabbi\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/author\\\/thesportsrabbiisrael\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Playing a very good team: Kozuk and Hapoel Beer Sheva prepare for Red Star in UCL 3rd Round qualifying - Sports Rabbi","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Playing a very good team: Kozuk and Hapoel Beer Sheva prepare for Red Star in UCL 3rd Round qualifying - Sports Rabbi","og_description":"Hapoel Beer Sheva will take on Red Star Belgrade in UEFA Champions League third round second leg action on Tuesday night at the Marakana Stadium for a ticket to the playoff round of the competition after having beaten the Serbian side 1-0 in the first contest between the two. Should Beer Sheva advance to the […]","og_url":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\/","og_site_name":"Sports Rabbi","article_published_time":"2026-08-10T18:42:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-08-10T18:46:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":623,"url":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_1294.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Joshua Halickman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Joshua Halickman","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\/"},"author":{"name":"Joshua Halickman","@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/10150053309b5bf124d40c3812a32bf0"},"headline":"Playing a very good team: Kozuk and Hapoel Beer Sheva prepare for Red Star in UCL 3rd Round qualifying","datePublished":"2026-08-10T18:42:44+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-10T18:46:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\/"},"wordCount":405,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_1294.jpeg","keywords":["hapoel beer sheva"],"articleSection":["Football"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\/","url":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\/","name":"Playing a very good team: Kozuk and Hapoel Beer Sheva prepare for Red Star in UCL 3rd Round qualifying - Sports Rabbi","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_1294.jpeg","datePublished":"2026-08-10T18:42:44+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-10T18:46:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/10150053309b5bf124d40c3812a32bf0"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/playing-a-very-good-team-kozuk-and-hapoel-beer-sheva-prepare-for-red-star-in-ucl-3rd-round-qualifying\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_1294.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_1294.jpeg","width":1280,"height":623,"caption":"Ran Kozuk - Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/","name":"Sports Rabbi","description":"The Home of Israeli Sports","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/10150053309b5bf124d40c3812a32bf0","name":"Joshua Halickman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/WhatsApp-Image-2020-12-08-at-10.13.06-150x150.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/WhatsApp-Image-2020-12-08-at-10.13.06-150x150.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/WhatsApp-Image-2020-12-08-at-10.13.06-150x150.jpeg","caption":"Joshua Halickman"},"description":"Joshua Halickman, The Sports Rabbi is the founder of the website and has been covering Israeli sports since 2004. The Sports Rabbi has gone to over 4,000 live sporting events in 25+ countries looking for the most exciting and intriguing stories. Josh has lectured to tens of thousands across the globe about the Zionism through Israeli Sports. You can follow Josh on Twitter @thesportsrabbi","url":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/author\/thesportsrabbiisrael\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187627"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187629,"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187627\/revisions\/187629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}