"It will be an exceptional experience": Hapoel Be'er Sheva prepares for the Marakana
The Israeli champion landed in Belgrade ahead of the big second leg against Red Star (Tuesday, 21:00, Sport1) at the legendary stadium: "Everyone here is talking and breathing the game." The club is optimistic but expects a completely different game, and also: Amador's integration and the focus on Zlatanovic.
Hapoel Be'er Sheva is already in Belgrade ahead of the big game tomorrow (Tuesday, 21:00, Sport1) against Red Star Belgrade, as part of the second leg of the Champions League third qualifying round. Yesterday the team landed in the Serbian capital, and unlike the two previous games that were held at Hapoel Be'er Sheva's home stadium in Hungary, this time they did not have to make a long journey, but a short drive from the airport to the hotel in the city.
"You can feel the game in every corner," one of the Hapoel Be'er Sheva players described yesterday. "Everyone here is talking, breathing the game. It will be an exceptional experience."
Today, Hapoel Be'er Sheva will get acquainted with the famous Marakana stadium. "We read and heard a lot about the stadium. In the end, it's a football pitch, which we know from years of playing on the pitch. The crowd sits far from the pitch, and we understood from various publications that the stadium will not be full," they say at the club after the victory last week.
In the ranks of the Israeli champion, Be'er Sheva, there is a belief that it can be done tomorrow, but it is clear to everyone that the nature of the game will be different, and that Red Star Belgrade will try from the first second to exert heavy pressure and push to equalize the result, so as not to get into stress later in the game. This will be the first goal of Hapoel Be'er Sheva: to keep their goal clean at the start of the game.
According to yesterday's training, it seems there will be only one change in the lineup, when Pedro Amador will replace Matan Baltaxa at the left-back position. The Portuguese has quite a lot of experience, and he has already integrated into the team. Miguel Vitor is also helping him, bringing him into the fold professionally and socially.
The Serbian media is dealing quite a bit with Lucas Ventura, who impressed a lot in the first game. Also, the Serbian Igor Zlatanovic, who returns to Belgrade after leaving Partizan Belgrade at a young age and moving to Spain and later to Israel, is attracting a lot of interest.
