Maccabi Tel Aviv moved into the Playoff Round of the UEFA Conference League with a 1-0 victory (2-1 on aggregate) over AEK Larnaca as Eran Zahavi’s 86th penalty sent the yellow-and-blue yet another step closer to the group stages of the competition.
After a goalless first half the Cypriot side began to push to find a marker and it look like they had but their goal was ruled to be offside which opened the door for Robbie Keane’s squad to find the eventual winner. Felicio Milson was knocked down in the box by Hrvoje Milicevic handing the hosts a penalty that Zahavi slotted home to take the victory.
“The character the guys show the resilience as we played against a good team with a good coach,” Robbie Keane said. “We knew it was going to be difficult. I can’t fault the attitude and will to win and not to concede goals and then to score a goal. It’s onto the next round.”
The goal scorer Eran Zahavi also spoke about the victory, “There are no easy games at this level. The ball just didn’t want to go in. One time it was the keeper the next it went off a defender. But we were able to go through and hopefully going forward we will have one easier time seeing the ball go into the goal. We struggled to advance which was positive as we had to work together in order to move on.”
Hapoel Beer Sheva were knocked out of contention for a place in the Conference League group stages as they fell at Levski Sofia 2-1 (2-1 on aggregate) after giving up a 96th minute goal to Ronaldo.
Elyaniv Barda’s squad headed to Bulgaria after a goalless draw in the southern capital and fell behind on a Welton Felipe goal in the 15th minute, however, Yoan Stoyanov drew the visitors even at 1-1 in the 79th minute, setting up the dramatic finale to the two legged tie. As the game headed into injury time, Ronaldo slammed the ball behind Beer Sheva keeper Ofir Marciano to the delight of the home crowd to send their heroes into the Playoff Round and the southern reds back home.
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