Hapoel Beer Sheva and Sabah FK on the brink of the league phase
Hapoel Beer Sheva and Sabah FK are separated from a place in the Champions League league phase by just one more knockout hurdle. The first match of the play-off round brings together the Israeli and Azerbaijani champions, two teams that have already overcome several demanding European obstacles during the summer and enter the final qualifying round with very tangible results behind them.
An important detail for supporters planning to travel is the venue. Hapoel Beer Sheva will not play this match at Turner Stadium in Be'er Sheva. For European matches from the play-off round onward, the club has moved its home venue to Bucharest, where it will host Sabah FK at Rapid-Giulești Stadium. The match is scheduled for August 19, while the return leg is set for August 25 at Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium in Baku.
That completely changes the traditional home-field advantage. Hapoel will formally be the home team, but it will not have the familiar surroundings of Turner, while Sabah will also arrive at a more neutral venue than the one it would have faced in Israel. For supporters, this means Bucharest has become the actual destination for this match. Tickets for this match are in demand among fans.
What is at stake
The stakes could hardly be higher. The winner of the two-legged tie advances to the Champions League league phase, and both teams have already followed a path to this point that has shown they can win matches both at home and away.
Hapoel Beer Sheva eliminated FK Crvena Zvezda in the previous round with victories in both matches. The first meeting ended 1:0, and in the return leg in Belgrade, Rán Kozuch's team won 2:0. Igor Zlatanović opened the scoring in the second half after an assist from Javon East, and East then scored himself to make the final score 2:0. Hapoel therefore advanced 3:0 on aggregate, without conceding a goal against an opponent that represented a serious test before the play-off.
Sabah reached the final round by a more dramatic route. After a 2:1 away defeat against Aarhus, Valdas Dambrauskas's team responded in the return leg with a 4:0 victory in Baku. The 5:2 aggregate score turned an uncomfortable position after the first match into one of Sabah's most convincing victories on its qualifying journey.
Hapoel's road to the play-off
The results of the latest European matches show why Hapoel enters this tie with plenty of confidence.
- Vikingur Reykjavik - Hapoel Beer Sheva 2:1
- Hapoel Beer Sheva - Vikingur Reykjavik 2:0
- Hapoel Beer Sheva - FK Crvena Zvezda 1:0
- FK Crvena Zvezda - Hapoel Beer Sheva 0:2
Particularly significant is the way Hapoel played against Crvena zvezda. In the first match, the club described its game as intense and based on high pressing. It was precisely that pressure that brought Zahi Ahmad's goal after the ball was won back in the opposition defence. Hapoel later went down to ten men but preserved the 1:0 lead.
The return leg provided even more convincing confirmation. Instead of sitting back and protecting the narrow advantage, Hapoel looked for the right moment to attack in Belgrade and found it through Zlatanović and East. That is an important signal for Sabah: the Israeli champion is not a team that necessarily needs long spells of possession to create danger.
Zlatanović is the central striker who gives Hapoel a finishing presence in the penalty area, while East already showed against Crvena zvezda that he can be both creator and finisher at the same time. Zahi Ahmad delivered the victory in the first match of the previous round, while a midfield featuring players such as Kings Kangwa, Eliel Peretz and Lucas Ventura gives the coach several different options for connecting the lines.
Sabah has already shown that it knows how to win away
Sabah's qualifying journey also provides enough warning signs for Hapoel. The Azerbaijani champion did not reach the play-off by relying only on matches in Baku.
- Sabah FK - The New Saints 2:0
- The New Saints - Sabah FK 1:2
- Sabah FK - KuPS 1:0
- KuPS - Sabah FK 0:2
- Aarhus - Sabah FK 2:1
- Sabah FK - Aarhus 4:0
In the first two qualifying ties, Sabah recorded victories in all four matches. The 2:0 away win against KuPS is particularly important because it shows that Dambrauskas's team can control a knockout match outside Baku as well. Against Aarhus it suffered its first defeat, but the response in the return leg was even stronger.
Sabah's current squad includes Kaheem Parris, Aleksey Isaev, Ivan Lepinjica, Umarali Rakhmonaliev, Rodrigo Fernandes, Tymoteusz Puchacz and Akim Zedadka. Parris has already scored in this season's qualifiers, and the combination of players from different footballing schools gives Dambrauskas plenty of room to make changes during the match.
At the end of July, Sabah lost Aaron Malouda, who moved to Basel. The club announced that Malouda had made a total of 31 appearances and scored nine goals in a Sabah shirt, so his departure represented a change in the attacking rotation right in the middle of the qualifying summer. Despite that, the 4:0 result against Aarhus showed that the team has enough attacking solutions even without him.
Where the match could be decided
The most interesting tactical battle could develop when Hapoel begins to press Sabah's build-up more aggressively. Against Crvena zvezda, such an approach already produced a goal. If Hapoel manages to close down the first passing options and force Sabah to play a long ball earlier, the nominal home team could gain control of the match through territory, second balls and pressure around the penalty area.
Sabah, however, arrives after qualifiers in which it showed that it does not have to dominate the entire match to get a result. Its two away victories against The New Saints and KuPS give Dambrauskas an argument that he does not need to open up the match unnecessarily in Bucharest. In a two-legged tie with the return leg in Baku, even a low-scoring result can be very valuable.
Patience will therefore be important for Hapoel. Pushing a large number of players forward too early could give Sabah's quicker players space behind the ball. On the other hand, if the Israeli champion finds an early goal, the visitors will be forced to play more openly than they might prefer.
Zlatanović and East are particularly important at the moment because together they directly decided the return leg of the previous round. Sabah will have to watch not only the traditional passes toward the central striker but also the movements around him. East's assist for Zlatanović, followed by his own goal in Belgrade, is a good example of how dangerous Hapoel can be when the attacking players switch roles during an attacking move.
Absences could affect Hapoel's defence
According to current FotMob data, Hapoel Beer Sheva has several injury concerns ahead of the match. Djibril Diop is listed with a thigh injury, Pedro Amador with an Achilles tendon injury, and João Victor with a hamstring injury. For Sabah, the same overview currently lists no unavailable players.
That is particularly important because the play-off comes during a congested schedule. Hapoel has a home league fixture against Hapoel Haifa on August 15, while Sabah plays Kəpəz on the same day. The coaches therefore have to balance domestic competition with a match that, only a few days later, could determine their entire European autumn.
It has not been confirmed that every one of Hapoel's listed absences will definitely still apply on match day, so the final line-ups should only be assessed after the latest information from the clubs.
No head-to-head history as a guide
Available databases do not show a previous meeting between Hapoel Beer Sheva and Sabah FK. This means the coaches do not have a recent H2H pattern on which they can rely. The analysis will be based more on how both teams progressed through the previous rounds than on the history of this specific pairing.
Hapoel's series against Crvena zvezda shows a very solid defensive structure and an ability to punish mistakes. Sabah's series against Aarhus shows something different - the ability to quickly turn an entire two-legged tie around. That is precisely why the result of the first match will not necessarily clearly determine who ultimately advances. Sabah has already shown this summer how much the picture can change between two evenings.
Rapid-Giulești Stadium changes the character of the home match
Rapid-Giulești Stadium is located at Calea Giulești 18 in Bucharest. Sources for the Romanian championship list a capacity of approximately 14,000 seats. It is a compact football arena with stands close to the pitch, but Hapoel will not have the routine there that it has in its own city.
For the Israeli club, Bucharest is its new European home from the play-off round onward. Earlier home qualifying matches were played at Haladás Sportkomplexum in Szombathely, Hungary. The move to Romania means the team once again has to adapt its operational routine, the pitch, dressing rooms and arrival at the stadium.
From a supporters' perspective, the situation is also unusual. Instead of travelling to Beer Sheva, both groups of travelling supporters are effectively heading to a third country. As a result, the distribution of the crowd may be different from that of a standard European home match. Seats in the stands disappear quickly when a match decides entry into the league phase, so it makes sense to organise the travel plan together with the ticket.
Getting to the stadium
For visitors arriving in Bucharest, it is useful to know several specific things:
- The arena's address is Calea Giulești 18, București.
- The capacity is approximately 14,000 spectators.
- Tram lines 41 and 44 operate near the stadium.
- Bus lines 178 and N110 also serve the Giulești area.
- Metro line M1 can be used as part of the journey from other parts of the city.
For major matches in Giulești, local transport occasionally extends the operating hours of certain lines after the end of the match, but such a change should not be assumed in advance. It is worth checking the public transport timetable on the day of the match itself.
Arrival by car is possible, but the stadium is in a densely built-up urban area and parking availability on the day of a major event may be limited. Public transport is therefore the safer option for visitors unfamiliar with Bucharest.
The opening time of the gates for this match has not yet been publicly confirmed in the sources reviewed. It is therefore more practical for supporters to plan to arrive in the stadium area early rather than rely on a precise gate-opening schedule that has not yet been announced.
Bucharest as host to supporters from several countries
Bucharest is a major transport hub in southeastern Europe, and the match in Giulești creates a completely different travel profile from a meeting in Beer Sheva or Baku. Hapoel supporters are travelling abroad for a match involving their own club, Sabah supporters are also travelling outside their country, while the stadium is simultaneously the home of Rapid București.
Giulești is located west of central Bucharest and is well connected by public transport. For a visitor who wants to avoid congestion around the stadium, it is practical to leave enough time between arriving in the city and the start of the match. After major football matches, the greatest pressure usually occurs precisely on the transport routes immediately around the arena.
The atmosphere will therefore be interesting even without a traditional home environment. Hapoel supporters have already followed the team on European away trips, including around 300 supporters mentioned by the club after the victory in Belgrade. Sabah, on the other hand, comes from a qualifying campaign that produced a 4:0 result in Baku and considerable interest around the club.
Form that leaves little room for mistakes
Hapoel scored three goals and conceded none in its last two matches against Crvena zvezda. Sabah scored four by itself in the return leg against Aarhus. Those numbers do not guarantee an open match, but they show that both teams enter the play-off after producing their best results when the pressure was greatest.
For Hapoel, the key will be to transfer the intensity from the previous round to the new stadium while not losing defensive discipline. For Sabah, the priority is to survive periods of home pressure and keep the tie in a state in which the return leg in Baku will carry its full weight.
The reaction after the first goal will also be important. Hapoel showed against Crvena zvezda that it knows how to protect a lead, even when the circumstances of the match become more difficult. Sabah showed against Aarhus that falling behind in the first match does not have to knock it off balance. These are two different types of experience now colliding in the same knockout round.
For supporters coming to Bucharest, this is a match with clear sporting stakes, not just another qualifying evening. One team will enter the league phase after the return leg, while the other will fall short of that objective after an entire summer journey. It is worth securing tickets in good time and checking the kick-off time, entry rules and transport information for Rapid-Giulești Stadium again before travelling.
Sources:
- Hapoel Beer Sheva FC - reports on the victories against FK Crvena Zvezda, coach Rán Kozuch, the squad and the relocation of European home matches to Bucharest.
- Sabah FC - match schedule, results against The New Saints, KuPS and Aarhus, current squad, and information on coach Valdas Dambrauskas and Aaron Malouda's transfer.
- Report.az - confirmation of the venue of the first match in Bucharest and the venue and date of the return leg in Baku.
- FotMob - current team form, list of injured Hapoel players, H2H data and information about Rapid-Giulești Stadium.
- LPF2 Romania - address and capacity of the stadium in Giulești.
- București FM and Moovit - public transport in the stadium area and lines serving visitors to Giulești.