UEFA Cup Soccer: It's d?j? vu as Hapoel Tel Aviv bows out

Gutman's squad loses 2-1 to Saint-Etienne in second leg to fall 4-2 on aggregate.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
hapoel tel aviv 248.88 (photo credit: AP)
hapoel tel aviv 248.88
(photo credit: AP)
It's only the beginning of October and Israeli interest in UEFA competitions is already over. Hapoel Tel Aviv suffered a 2-1 defeat against AS Saint-Etienne on Thursday night, losing 4-2 on aggregate in the first round of the UEFA Cup. After Betar Jerusalem was knocked out in Champions League qualifiers and Maccabi Netanya and Ironi Kiryat Shmona didn't progress past the UEFA Cup qualifying rounds, Israeli hopes for continental success rested once more on Hapoel Tel Aviv. In the past two seasons Hapoel reached the UEFA Cup group stage, however Eli Gutman's team was in serious trouble even before Thursday, having lost 2-1 at home two weeks ago in the first leg, and never really came close to overturning the deficit at the Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium last night. Had Samuel Yeboah converted the team's best chance of the match in the 22nd minute, the outcome could well have been different, but he missed and three minutes later Bafetimbi Gomis scored with a bicycle kick to put the hosts in a dominant position. Saint-Etienne was in full control after that, with Gomis also scoring the team's second goal in the 75th minute. Yeboah's goal in stoppage-time was completely meaningless and coach Gutman had no complaints at the end. "Saint-Etienne controlled the proceedings and we only managed to score in garbage time," said Gutman. "The better team won. There's no doubt Saint-Etienne is better than Hapoel and the only thing that upsets me is that we didn't try hard enough to work our way into the match. "We settled for defending and only began to play attacking soccer when they had an unassailable 2-0 lead." The hosts dominated right from the start of the match and fully deserved to take the lead in the 25th minute. Dimitri Payet lobbed a header into the box and Gomis beat 'keeper Vincent Enyeama with an acrobatic effort. Despite conceding, Tel Aviv still only needed two goals to take the tie into extra-time, but Gutman's players couldn't find their footing and were fortunate to lose the match by just a single goal. In the 36th minute, Brazilian striker Ilan should have doubles the Frenchmen's lead, but made a complete mess of his chip, lifting the ball over Enyeama, but over the crossbar as well. Three minutes later, Greek defender Stathis Tavlaridis headed just over the woodwork from five meters out and, in first half stoppage time, Blaise Matuidi released a dangerous shot which was well collected by Enyeama. Despite sending more players forward after the break, Tel Aviv was still by far the second best team on the pitch, with the hosts registering numerous scoring opportunities. Six minutes after the interval, Gomis ballooned his shot from five meters, and after a further six minutes Geoffrey Dernis fluffed his shot to the visitors' relief. In the 64th minute, Ilan's finishing let the locals down once more, with the Brazilian blasting the ball off target from the edge of the area. The hosts did, however, finally score a deserved second goal after Gomis clinically shot past Enyeama to the fans delight. Yeboah pounced first to score a consolation goal for Hapoel in injury-time, but it was too little too late, and the outcome leaves Israeli soccer to ponder how all of its representatives were knocked out so early in the UEFA season.