There was a certain je ne sais quoi at Bloomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv on Thursday night. The ever so chic French team Saint Etienne was in town and, for much of the 90 minutes, put on a performance full of finesse, running rings round Hapoel Tel Aviv to take a 2-1 lead back to France in the first leg of their UEFA Cup first-round tie. Despite the fact that it had lost four of its five games in Ligue 1 so far this season, the team from central eastern France played for the majority of the game with a level of class that is rarely seen on these shores. While Tel Aviv perked up and began attacking with a little venom in the last 20 minutes, it was too little, too late and the two away-goals it conceded could well prove too difficult to overcome in the fiery atmosphere of the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard in two weeks time. Dmitri Payet scored the first for Saint Etienne after only eight minutes, delighting the 150 or so visiting French ultras as he latched onto a through ball, stormed in on goal and gave Hapoel 'keeper Vincent Enyeama little chance. Despite increased pressure from the team in green, Saint Etienne could not score again until the 61st minute when Pascal Feindouno passed the ball into an empty net from a pinpoint Bafetimbi Gomis cross. After the second goal, Hapoel pushed forward, seemingly knowing it had little to lose. Their efforts paid off late as Maaran Lala pulled one back for the hosts with three minutes remaining after a gaggle of chances in the closing period. Before the game, Hapoel coach Eli Gutman had warned of the need for his team to get a good result in order to give it a chance of advancing to the all-important UEFA Cup group stage for a third consecutive year. If this showing is at all indicative, however, the Reds can bid adieu to any hopes it had of a long European run this season. "We weren't as aggressive as we needed to be, Gutman said at the post match press conference." Saint Etienne coach Laurent Roussey was delighted with his side's display. "A bigger victory would have been safer for us but we are very happy to fly back with this result," Roussey told reporters. Bloomfield was packed around the three sides of the stadium housing the home-side supporters, who created noise throughout the encounter. "We knew there would be a good atmosphere and Hapoel would use this to their advantage," Roussey added. "But it didn't deter us from playing well." The first half was all Saint Etienne. By the 20th minute, the visiting Frenchmen seemed happy to slowly pass the ball around before Pascal Feindouno unleashed a fierce effort which Enyeama pushed away for a corner. At the other end, Hapoel appeared to be more dithering than building up play whenever it got the ball in the opposition half. The Hapoel Tel Aviv attacks lacked any guile, with Shay Abutbul especially guilty of wasting opportunities and Gili Vermut trying to dribble round the whole opposing team. Hapoel was a team well and truly under pressure and Gutman was shaking his head with frustration as Geoffrey Dernis came very close to scoring with an audacious lob from outside the area towards the end of the first period. Bulgarian striker Dimitar Telkiyiski, Hapoel's player of the season in 2007/08, was having a terrible game and was replaced by Idan Strur on the hour mark. But instead of yielding a goal, the substitution was immediately followed by a Saint Etienne goal. Gomis crossed to Feindouno, who easily knocked the ball into the net past a helpless Enyeama. The goal appeared to spur the home team forward and Samuel Yeboah nearly pulled one back, forcing a fine save from Jody Vivian in the Saint Etienne goal. Lala soon came close with an overhead kick, but Vivian was again up to the task before the Arab Israeli finally scored what could well prove to be simply a consolation goal.
