From East to West, Hapoel Be'er Sheva and Maccabi Tel Aviv played in matchday 3 of the Europa League group stage.
The Israeli sides were looking for surprising results against teams from the top European leagues.
Hapoel Be'er Sheva vs Bayer Leverkusen 2-4
Hapoel Be'er Sheva arrived at their home match against Bayer Leverkusen after three winless games. Now they will have to face the group's top team, Bayer Leverkusen when the group is all tied with 3 points for each team.
The Germans were the clear favourites, and they found the net quickly in the 4th minute. Leon Bailey took a shot from a range, Ohad Levita tipped the ball, but it got into the net. The advantage didn't last long, as a mistake in the defensive line of Bayer Leverkusen let Jhonathan Agudelo pass to Elton Acolatse. The Dutchmen scored the equalizer, which was his third goal in the group stage. Then, something has changed in Hapoel Be'er Sheva. In the 25th minute, Or Dadya passed to Acolatse, who ran into the box, got over the defender, walk through the goalkeeper, and scored an elegant goal. Bayer Leverkusen didn't give up but found the net with a little bit of help from Hapoel Be'er Sheva. A corner kick from the right, Levita punched it, but the ball hit Dadya's and mistakenly scored an own goal.
In the second half, Bayer Leverkusen retook dominance. The German team tried time after time to score but missed. In the 75th minute, a crossed ball reached Leon Bailey, Levite missed the ball, and the Jamaican striker scored with his head. Bayer Leverkusen concluded the match in the 88th minute when Moussa Diaby passed to Florian Wirtz, which easily scored the fourth.
As expected, Hapoel Be'er Sheva lost but can feel that they missed a chance to upset Bayer Leverkusen. After the international break, they will hope to do another impressive performance, and this time it will be in Germany.
Elton Ecolatse, great performance as Hapoel Be’er Sheva failed to defeat Bayer Leverkusen (Hapoel Be’er Sheva / Lior Moskovich)
Villareal vs Maccabi Tel Aviv 4-0
As we nicknamed it before, this group in the Asian group of the Europa League. Maccabi Tel Aviv travelled to their only match to be played in Europe, against the Spanish side, Villareal.
A match in Europe needs European weather, so the rain in Spain made a flooded pitch. The match was delayed twice before finally kicking it off at 22:10 CET, over an hour after the scheduled time. The teams waited too long for the game, but Villareal didn't have to wait until Carlos Bacca scored the first goal in the 4th minute.
Bacca didn't stop. In the 51st minute, Takefusa Kubo crossed a ball to the Colombian player, who flicked it in. He continued his great match and added another assist in the 71st minute, while Alex Baena was the one who scored. Carlos Bacca was subbed out, but Villareal wanted to score more. Fer Niño added the fourth goal in the 81st minute.
Maccabi Tel Aviv didn't have one of their best matches, as they made only one shot on goal. It seems that their main rival in the race for second place will be Sivasspor, which defeated Qarabağ 2-0.
