Red Star Hapoel Return Leg: Niberg to Referee, Baltaca Out
Hapoel Beer Sheva travels to Marakana on Tuesday without suspended Matan Baltaca and injured Zoao Viktor, while Swede Glen Niberg referees the Champions League qualifier return leg against Red Star.
The tunnel that visiting teams use to reach the pitch at the Rajko Mitic stadium is long and dark, and Hapoel Beer Sheva’s players will walk through it on Tuesday evening ahead of the return leg against Red Star. Israeli journalists have been asking a man who knows that tunnel firsthand.
Gaj Carfati, a former member of Barak Bahar’s coaching staff at Red Star, described it to his compatriots this way:
It’s an experience in itself, something you don’t see often in football, not here and not in Europe. The tunnel is very long, sometimes soaked with water or beer poured from the stands above. You have to walk through it both ways, before and after training and before and after the match. Red Star’s own players don’t do that, for instance, because they come out through the back complex. So the whole time you’re taking in the noise of the crowd, which supposedly puts pressure on the team. At least that’s what people say, but my advice to them is to enjoy it.
Carfati also explained to Israeli media that there are two routes out of the away dressing room, the direct one leading straight onto the pitch, and another that takes visitors low beneath the stands. His advice was to turn that into a source of motivation rather than a burden.
Red Star needs a two-goal win after the 1-0 loss in Hungary, as we wrote following the league match against Novi Pazar. In the two days since, something has changed, and it happened on the visitors’ side.
What Hapoel Changes in the Lineup
Coach Ran Kozuh is making at least one change to his starting eleven. Left back Matan Baltaca was sent off in the 58th minute of the first leg and must sit out the return match, with Portuguese defender Pedro Amador, who came on as a substitute in the 63rd minute in Sombathelj, expected to take his place.
Zoao Viktor also drops out of the squad, missing the trip to Belgrade because of an injury and a lack of training sessions. For a team that finished the first match with ten men and still protected its lead, that’s two fewer names in the defensive block that held for the final half hour.
Message from Beer Sheva Ahead of the Trip to Belgrade
The Israeli club struck a clear tone before departing for Serbia.
The pressure isn’t on us, it’s only on Red Star. Nobody gave us a chance before the first match, and nobody will give us one after it either.
Kozuh was more guarded when he spoke about the trip to Marakana after the first leg.
Marakana? That’s one of the toughest stadiums in Europe. We’ll do everything to advance. It won’t be easy, we’ll have to give everything we have.
Who Referees the Return Leg at Marakana?
UEFA has appointed a Swedish officiating team. The referee is Glen Niberg, who has also worked at a World Cup, with Mahbod Beigi and Andreas Sederkvist as his assistants. Oskar Dzonson is the fourth official, while Dutch officials Pol van Bekel and Ricard Martens run the VAR room.
The video review room had work to do in the first leg. Derik Lukasen’s red card was overturned after a VAR check and downgraded to a yellow, which meant Red Star finished the match with a full squad even though Hapoel was already down to ten men.
Tickets and Kickoff Time
The match kicks off Tuesday at 8 p.m. Ticket prices are:
- North stand, 800 dinars
- East stand, 1,200 dinars
- West stand, 1,500 dinars
- Sinisa Mihajlovic stand, 2,800 dinars
Ticket offices are open Monday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on match day from noon until kickoff.
The Number That Decides It All
The first leg was played on August 4 at the Haladas stadium in the Hungarian city of Sombathelj, in front of about 1,200 spectators, roughly 400 of them Red Star supporters. The only goal came in the 38th minute, after a slow pass from goalkeeper Mateus, and it was scored by Zahi Ahmet. Stankovic’s starting eleven that day was Mateus, Seol, Erakovic, Lukasen, Tiknizjan, Krunic, Abu Fani, Bukari, Kostov, Ivanic and Duarte.
The number that tells the real story isn’t 1-0, it’s the roughly 40 minutes Red Star played with an extra man and produced zero goals from it. Long balls and shots from distance didn’t break down a packed Israeli defense in Hungary, and on home turf, with a full stadium and two goals to chase, Red Star will need a different way to get into the box.
The winner of the playoff tie faces the better side from the Orhus, Sabah pairing. Carfati, who says he’s still rooting for Red Star from Serbia, has his own prediction.
I think this one goes to extra time, we’re in for a dramatic night.
Judging by the first leg, he might not be far off. Red Star has the quality to score twice, but it didn’t show that quality in Sombathelj, not even against ten men. It all starts Tuesday at 8 p.m.
