Maccabi Haifa will go to Belgrade on Sunday with a 2:3 advantage over Red Star from the first game last night (Wednesday) at Sami Ofer.
The club is optimistic that Barak Becher's team can complete the task and advance to the Champions League for the first time since 2009.
The club's president, Yaakov Shahar, who was present at the post-game meal in the viewing booths along with the players, conveyed a message to his coach Barak Becher and his players that he "believes it can be done".
And it's not just dawn.
Bacher himself entered the dressing room at halftime of the match with the Serbs tied at 1:2 and said to the players, with the ball in his hands: "Here is the ball and it is in your hands. Either you attack them and win the game, or you don't. I know what I will see from you in the second half and I believe in you that we will win."
Maccabi Haifa celebrates in Sami Ofer, photo: Alan Shiver
At the end of the 90 minutes, Haifa made the change and in the Indian club: "We have a strong and special team, one that comes together once in a decade, if at all. There is tremendous faith, but we know that the story in Serbia will be completely different."
In Haifa, all the players were complimented, but the main praise went to Dolev Haziza (3 assists), Charon Sherry (the winning goal), Ali Muhammad who excelled and the striker Franzadi Piero, who scored a pair and raised his balance to 5 goals in the Champions qualifiers.
Maccabi Haifa celebrates in Sami Ofer, photo: Alan Shiver
"Haziza has improved and we will become a more complete player," they complimented the club, "As for Piero, just the thought that there were people who sent him home after half an hour against Hapoel BS makes me laugh.
Luckily he didn't hear and understand what they wanted from him.
He is a striker that no team in the league has a solution for when he is fit."
They added in Carmel: "Ali Muhammad is the player that there are not many like him in Europe, you have to take advantage and enjoy every moment that he is here and Charon Sherry is a top player who belongs to the Champions League from the moment he arrived here."
As for Piero, the player will be tested today due to tenderness in his hamstring.
Haifa believe that it is not a serious injury and hope that he will be fit for the return match.
Midfielder Neta Lavi also felt tenderness in his hamstring in the 80th minute, but completed the game.
Almost all the players of the lineup that played last night against the Red Star will be rested in the league games on Saturday against Bnei Sakhnin.
Ali Muhammad asks for discounts,
In Haifa they are still angry that the game was not postponed and the coach Barak Bakr expanded and said that "this game is stuck in the middle of the most important week for the club and Israeli football in recent years. Instead of going towards us, I don't understand it".
Piero celebrates his second in Sami Ofer, photo: Alan Shiver
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