Summary: Gent - Maccabi Haifa 1:1/Sport1
Gent failed to qualify for the round of 16 of the Conference League through the group stage following a loss to Maccabi Tel Aviv in the final round, but had another chance to do so and again against an Israeli opponent when they were drawn against Maccabi Haifa in the playoff stage.
In the "home" game of the Greens in Budapest, Ghent lost 1:0 and tonight in the home game they only managed to come back from behind, but did not know how to turn around, it ended in 1:1 and Maccabi Haifa moved up a level.
In Belgium, despite this, they chose not to praise Israeliness - but to hit Ghent.
"Once again the same familiar story. Ghent missed out, failed to win and the European journey is over despite meeting a mediocre opponent," the "nieuwsblad" wrote.
"Sforza" added: "A European hangover for Gent. The adventure in the Conference League ended after a frustrating evening and Gent suffered a double blow from Israel."
In "HLN" they concluded: "Ghent simply did not show up for the first half. There were no fans in the stadium, so obviously the conditions were not ideal, but Ghent looked so bad and weak. Rafalov and Khalaili, who was very good, could have scored and missed. Even after Ghent equalized and deserved to lead, just couldn't score another goal and it's a fact that she flew from Europe. Another disappointment in 2024."
"Another disappointment in 2024"/Reuters
Tarik Tisudaly, who scored Ghent's only goal tonight, did not hide his great disappointment: "There are thousands of reasons why we didn't win, but it doesn't matter. I'm very disappointed, we all have to bring more of ourselves. We had a lot of chances and that wasn't the problem, Except we don't manage to score. We have a quality problem in front of the goal. In the second half we took more risks and it looked different, we weren't as scared as in the first half, but it wasn't enough. We will have to deal with the disappointment of the relegation and get a good result already in the next game in the league."
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