A long journey for Hapoel Be'er Sheva: Peretz and Kanaan compete for a spot

After a long journey, Hapoel Be'er Sheva arrived in Hungary during the night ahead of the first match they will host in the city of Szombathely against Red Star Belgrade tomorrow in the third qualifying round of the Champions League (Tuesday, 20:30, Sport 2). The team arrived at Ben Gurion Airport yesterday afternoon with the goal of flying to Bratislava, Slovakia, and crossing the border into Hungary. Unfortunately, just like last week when they flew to Vienna for the match against Víkingur, the team experienced a delay of nearly two hours in their departure from Israel. After landing in Slovakia at midnight, the team made the journey to Hungary, and the players went to sleep after long hours on the road.

According to yesterday's training session, it is not certain that Eliel Peretz will start tomorrow. It initially seemed that with the departure of Kings Kangwa, Peretz's place would be guaranteed, but in training, Peretz and Hamudi Kanaan were practiced alternately in the midfield alongside Lucas Ventura and Niv Yehoshua.

In the last match against Víkingur, Peretz came off the bench and recorded very good minutes, helping the team advance to the next stage. Nevertheless, the battle between him and Kanaan for the lineup continues. It appears that the new Portuguese left-back Pedro Amador will not start, as he is not yet fully coordinated with the team. Most likely, Matan Baltaxa will continue at left-back, with the new signing integrated later.

There are two main dilemmas ahead of the match:

1. In the center of defense: between Djibril Diop and Itay Rotman.

2. In the attack: between Javon East and Muhammad Abu Rumi.

In the previous match against the Icelanders, Diop was injured and Rotman came on in his place, performing well enough to challenge Diop for the center-back position alongside Miguel Vítor. On the right flank, there is an open battle between East and Abu Rumi. Amir Ganah, who came off the bench to score the second goal in the previous match, is expected to start on the bench again, while Zahi Ahmed, who was one of the team's standouts, is set to start.

Hapoel Be'er Sheva estimates that about 200 of their fans will attend tomorrow's home match. In contrast, 400 Red Star Belgrade fans will use the tickets allocated to them, representing about five percent of the stadium's capacity.