Back to the Intertoto days: Beitar Jerusalem's next opponent in Europe
Beitar Jerusalem completed the job against AEK Larnaca after a penalty drama and will meet Austria Vienna in the third qualifying round of the Conference League. The first leg will be a "home" game in Ploiești, Romania, next Thursday, with the return match in Austria on August 13.
Beitar Jerusalem completed the job against AEK Larnaca after a penalty drama and will meet Austria Vienna in the third qualifying round of the Conference League. The first match will be a "home" game in Ploiești, Romania, next Thursday, and the return leg will take place in Austria on August 13. This will be Beitar's first meeting with an Austrian opponent in one of the existing UEFA competitions. In the forgotten Intertoto Cup, they had nine matches during the 80s and 90s against Austrian rivals, recording three wins, three draws, and three losses.
Austria Vienna, which finished fourth in its league last season, passed the Latvian side Liepāja with a 2:0 win away and a 3:1 win at home this Thursday. They have won 24 championships and 27 cups in the past, but their last title was the championship in 2013. Following that, they participated for the first time in their history in the Champions League group stage, and in subsequent seasons, they played in the Europa League group stage. Their last group stage appearance was in the Conference League four years ago, when they were defeated 4:0 at Turner Stadium by Hapoel Be'er Sheva (after a 0:0 draw in Vienna) and finished last in the group with only two points. This remains their only meeting with an Israeli opponent.
No fewer than eight Israelis have played for the team in the past: Avi Benjamin was the first in 1973, Shai Holtzman arrived in 1998, Omer Damari in 2014, followed by Roi Kehat, Alon Turgeman, Doron Leidner, Matan Baltaxa, and Silva Kani.
The team's coach since June 2024 is 43-year-old Stephan Helm, a former lower-league player who served as a video analyst at the club, then left to be an assistant at LASK Linz, coached St. Pölten for two years, and returned through the front door. His team passed Liepāja with a double victory, and in between, they cruised in the first round of the Cup with a 5:0 win over Wiener from the third division. Johannes Eggestein, the team's top scorer last season and a former German youth international, scored a hat-trick in that match.
The German striker is accompanied by promising youngsters like 18-year-olds Vasilije Marković and Philipp Maybach, and 20-year-old Sanel Šaljić, with Manfred Fischer serving as captain. Veteran defender Aleksandar Dragović returned to the club two years ago and is expected to play after overcoming an injury. Those brought in to assist him in the center of the defense in the three-center-back formation are Nigerian Ibrahim Buhari (arrived as a free agent from Swedish club Elfsborg) and 19-year-old German Jonas Pedersen (on loan from Dortmund). The left flank is expected to be occupied by Lee Tae-seok, who made two appearances in the World Cup for South Korea. His compatriot Lee Kang-hee, usually a defensive midfielder, started as a defender in Dragović's absence.
