Last Saturday, the Israeli national team recorded one of its most painful losses in recent years when it surrendered 2-1 to Romania in a game that took place in the town of Plečot, near Budapest. In front of the 3,000 residents of the Gaza envelope who came to support them, the blue and white were unable to fulfill their mission to qualify for the Euros through the group stage and Tuesday night's game against Andorra was for the protocol only, allowing Alon Hazan to give minutes to players who did not get to see some grass in the past week.
Luckily, we still have hope of being in the European Championship after finishing first in the Nations League tournament and on Thursday there will be a draw where we will know who we will meet in the semi-finals – Iceland or Ukraine. On Thursday (13:00), the team that plays Track A in the playoffs will be drawn first - Ukraine, Iceland or Finland. If Finland or Ukraine are drawn and placed in Track A, Israel will play a playoff against Iceland and if Iceland is in Track A, Israel will play against Ukraine. If Israel wins and qualifies for the final, it will meet the winner between Bosnia and Finland or Ukraine, with the host of the final to be determined by lottery.
The semi-finals will take place on March 21 and the final will take place on March 26, 2024. It should be noted that Israel has a chance to host the semifinals, but it is still difficult to know if it will be able to do so in light of the security situation in Israel and the great tension in the south and north.
Zinchenko. A central cog in the arsenal as well, photo: EPA
Of the two options we have in the lottery, Ukraine is considered a much tougher hurdle than Iceland. Although the Ukrainians are also at war and host their matches across Europe, they boast a high-quality squad that includes Arsenal player Oleksandr Zinchenko, Mykhailo Mudryk who was bought by Chelsea a year ago for €100 million from Shakhtar Donetsk, Artem Dubvik, who is having a wonderful season so far with Spanish Girona and Roman Yaremchuk, Valencia's striker.
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Icelanders versus Ukrainians are beyond their peak after their golden age led them to Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup, but it is still not an easy hurdle at all, certainly for an Israeli team that has not managed to qualify for a major tournament since the 1970 World Cup. All we have to do is hope for the best in the lottery and wait until March to see if our big dream will finally come true.
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