Hapoel Be'er Sheva continued its European journey with another defeat against Bayer Leverkusen.
Hapoel Be'er Sheva is always the underdog in an away match against Bayer Leverkusen, but the club's current situation is making the gaps even wider. The Israeli side maintains poor form with five winless league matches, and in the recent matches, they failed to impress. Moreover, the squad that traveled to Germany have some significant absences.
Miguel Vitor, one of the team's experienced players, was injured a few weeks ago. Elton Ecolatse, who scored a marvelous goal in the previous match between the teams, is injured. The main absentee is Josué Pesqueira. The Portuguese key player had a sequence of discipline violations, and most recently, he punched one of his teammates in training. The club decided to suspend him, and therefore he could not be available for the team.
Yossi Abukasis is known for his defensive approach, and he always prefers to be an underdog. In the empty BayArena, he hoped that it would be another match to show how successful he is in this kind of game. Hapoel Be'er Sheva barely shot in the first half and usually stayed in the defensive side. In the 29th minute, Bayer Leverkusen scored the first. Patrick Schick returned from an injury and scored his debut Europa League goal.
It didn't take too long for Bayer Leverkusen to score at the beginning of the second half. Leon Bailey scored in the 48th minute, adding a goal to his tally after a brace in the first match. The German team could feel more comfortable with a 2-0 lead, getting close to another win.
Then came a huge mistake by Bayer Leverkusen's defense. Tin Jedvaj tried to pass a ball to Lukáš Hrádecký. His try was not accurate, and Itamar Shviro used it to take the ball and score in front of the empty goal. Hapoel Be'er Sheva had a few minutes of hope that they can equalize, although they didn't become more dominant.
All was over in the 76th minute when David Keltjens made a foul 18 meters from the goal. Kerim Demirbay took the free kick, and the ball was deflected from the crossbar to the net. Four minutes later, a mistake by Ohad Levita was successfully converted to a goal by Lucas Alario. In the end, Bayer Leverkusen defeated Hapoel Be'er Sheva as expected, 4-1.
Hapoel Be'er Sheva didn't think that they would win tonight. The campaign in the Europa League might be over soon, and Hapoel Be'er Sheva will need to focus again in the league. Their next mission would be to win, as they will play against Hapoel Haifa.
Thumbnail photo by the Europa League official Twitter
