Betar comes up short; Lokomotiv Sofia buries Bnei Yehuda.
By ALLON SINAIhapoel tel aviv 248.88(photo credit: AP)
Hapoel Tel Aviv joined Maccabi Haifa on Thursday night as the only Israeli teams remaining in European competition after the second legs of the UEFA Cup second qualifying round ties.
Two stoppage time goals by Hapoel gave it a 3-0 win against Slovenian side Domzale and a 4-2 aggregate victory.
Betar Jerusalem and Bnei Yehuda came up short against Dinamo Bucharest and Lokomotiv Sofia, respectively, and will have to wait at least one more year before they play in Europe again.
Hapoel and Haifa learn who they face next when the UEFA Cup draw is held Friday afternoon.
Hapoel Tel Aviv 3, Domzale 0
Two goals in two minutes of second half injury time gave Hapoel Tel Aviv the victory over Domzale and a place in the first round of the UEFA Cup.
Hapoel lost the first leg 2-1, and was trailing Domzale on aggregate score or the away goal tiebreaker for 91 minutes of Thursday's match in Slovenia.
Ivan Jolic gave Tel Aviv the lead in the 70th minute, but Hapoel still needed another goal to advance. Hapoel conceded two goals in its "home" leg in Amsterdam two weeks ago and needed to at least score the same number of goals in Ljubljana to have any chance of qualifying.
Tel Aviv got the crucial second goal thanks to Salim Toema's persistence and coach Yitzhak Schum's substitutions. One minute into injury time, Toema wrestled the ball away from a Slovenian defender and squared the ball for substitute Gil Vermouth, who smashed it into the net.
Hapoel poured salt into Domzale's wounds two minutes later when two other subs linked up. Baruch Dego passed the ball to Ibazito Ogabuna, whose shot went under the Slovenian 'keeper.
Tel Aviv dominated the match right from the kickoff and should have scored much sooner then it did. In the eighth minute, Jolic had a great opportunity but his shot was saved easily.
In the 29th minute, Hapoel forward Luciano De Bruno connected with Yossi Abuksis's free kick, but failed to get his shot on target.
Hapoel got increasingly frustrated as the final whistle neared and Schum decided to turn to his bench for help. Seven minutes after coming on as a substitute, Ogabuna passed the ball to Jolic, who volleyed the ball masterfully into the net.
The goal gave Tel Aviv renewed hope and the team surged forward in search of a winner, which came a minute into stoppage time.
After Ogabuna also got his name on the score sheet, the celebrations on the Hapoel bench began.
Lokomotiv Sofia 4, Bnei Yehuda 0
Bnei Yehuda's European debut ended in embarrassment after a drubbing at the hands of Lokomotiv Sofia. The Israeli club trailed the Bulgarians 2-0 from the first leg and could not prevent conceding double that number in Sofia on Thursday night.
Any hope of turning around the result from two weeks ago was dashed in the 21st minute when Kristian Dobrev gave Lokomotiv the lead directly from a 20-meter free kick.
Five minutes later, Bnei Yehuda was down to 10 men after Kobi Dajani was shown the red card. Sofia took advantage of its one-man advantage and doubled its lead two minutes from halftime thanks to Tsvetan Genkov's goal.
Things went from bad to worse in the second half for Bnei Yehuda as Kaloyan Karadjinov scored twice, in the 61st and 81th minutes.
Dinamo Bucharest 1, Betar Jerusalem 1
Betar scored an early goal against Dinamo but an own goal by Shimon Gershon gifted the Romanian squad the crucial away goal and ended Jerusalem's hopes.
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