Israel heads to Spain to prepare for Andorra

Also in qualifiers, Croatia beats Estonia 1-0 when de Silva scores in the first half.

By ALLON SINAI
jp.services1 (photo credit: )
jp.services1
(photo credit: )
The Israel national team flew to Barcelona on Sunday to begin preparations for Wednesday's crucial Euro 2008 qualifier against Andorra. The squad was in a buoyant mood after claiming its second away win of its qualifying campaign on Saturday night. The blue-and-white will train in the Spanish city before moving on to neighboring Andorra, where it will be looking to defeat the minnows to keep its slender hopes of advancing alive. The blue-and-white were far from impressive in their 2-1 victory on Saturday night, but two headers by Betar Jerusalem's Barak Itzhaki and Argentinian-born striker Roberto Colautti secured Dror Kashtan's side all three points. "We had to win to have any chance of reaching Euro 2008," stand in captain Dudu Awat said. "This victory has given us a lot of confidence ahead of the matches against Andorra and England. My dream is to qualify for the European championships and I would do anything to get there." Yossi Benayoun, who was suspended for the game against Macedonia, watched from the stands and will likely be wearing the captain's armband once again when he returns to the lineup against Andorra. "Awat was an excellent captain and he deserves to wear the armband," Benayoun said. "The players gave their all to get the win and now we need to defeat Andorra to keep our qualifying campaign alive." Dekel Keinan, Ben Sahar and Yuval Shpungin didn't fly with the rest of the squad to Barcelona after Kashtan released the players so they could join up with the Under-21 team in its preparation for next week's European Championship in Holland. Croatia 1, Estonia 0 Eduardo da Silva scored a first-half goal for Croatia which beat Estonia 1-0 in Zagreb on Saturday evening. The Brazilian-born striker from Dinamo Zagreb scored in the 31st minute, putting the ball behind goalkeeper Mart Poom after going through Estonia's defense. Croatia controlled the match while Oliver Konsa had Estonia's best chance in the 39th minute.