UEFA Cup Soccer: Hapoel looking for French inspiration

Tel Aviv must win in Saint Etienne tonight to keep its European season alive.

By ALLON SINAI
Hapoel TA soccer 224.88 (photo credit: AP)
Hapoel TA soccer 224.88
(photo credit: AP)
Hapoel Tel Aviv won't need to look far for inspiration ahead of its must-win UEFA Cup first round second leg match against AS Saint-Etienne at the Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium on Thursday. In its last visit to France in November 2006, the team had to defeat Paris-Saint Germain at the Parc des Princes Stadium to give itself a chance of progressing to the UEFA Cup last 32 and did so in memorable fashion, recording a 4-2 win, one of the club's greatest in its long European history. After losing 2-1 at Bloomfield Stadium in the first leg two weeks ago, Tel Aviv will need another remarkable result on French soil if it's to advance to the group stage of the UEFA Cup for a third straight season. "We've got a very tough mission on our hands, but we're very optimistic," Hapoel coach Eli Gutman said. "We will do all we can to complete the impossible. Saint Etienne is a good team as we all saw in Israel. "We will be ready and focused despite the result in the first leg. We believe we can overturn the deficit." Hapoel will be entering the match in high spirits after claiming its first league win of the season this past weekend, defeating Hapoel Petah Tikva 3-2. The Israelis struggled in the first leg against the Frenchmen and were quite fortunate to end the match with a minimal defeat. Tel Aviv would have had absolutely no chance in the second leg without substitute Maaran Lala's 88th minute goal two weeks ago and the heroics of goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama, who limited the French to just two goals. Gutman can also console himself with the fact Pascal Feindouno, who scored Saint-Etienne's second goal at Bloomfield, left the team last week for Qatar's Al-Sadd Sports Club and will not be tormenting the Hapoel defense once more. Like Hapoel, Saint-Etienne also only recently won its first league match of the season, defeating PSG 1-0 three days after getting the better of Tel Aviv in the first leg. The team has, however, yet to recapture the form which helped it to fifth position last season, picking up just seven points from its first seven matches of its league campaign. Saint-Etienne, which is playing in Europe once again after 27 years of absence, will welcome Thursday's distraction from its local tribulations after also being knocked out of the French league cup last week, losing 4-1 to Guingamp. This past weekend, Saint-Etienne recorded a credible 1-1 draw on the road against Bordeaux. "Because we're entering the match after losing the first leg, we will be less nervous than usual and that might help us," Hapoel midfielder Shay Abutbul said. "Anything can happen in soccer and we've seen this before. I believe we can do it."