Hapoel Beer Sheva – Lech Poznań 1:1 

Last week, Lech drew 0:0 in a clash with Hapoel Beer Sheva at Bułgarska Street. In the first match between the Polish and the Israeli clubs, the two halves were completely different. In the first 45 minutes, the hosts dominated, but following halftime, the match became more balanced, and it was Hapoel that had better goal-scoring opportunities.

Hence, the fans were expecting a fierce clash between the two sides which were to perform in front of a loud, 13-thousand crowd at Toto Turner Stadium. And indeed, the Israeli fans filled in the stands and provided fantastic support which became even louder when in the 9^th minute, the referee awarded Hapoel with a penalty kick following Joel Pereira’s foul in the box. Tomer Hemed converted the set piece into a goal with a confident shot.

Hapoel kept on putting pressure on their opponent, hence the equalizer that Lech scored before halftime was even more important in the context of the final score. Filip Szymczak, who hadn’t yet scored this season and who, on Thursday, played in an unusual position – that is, behind Mikael Ishak – converted Filip Dagerstal’s pass alongside the white line into a goal.

In the second half, Lech had moments when they were in control of the game, but their offensive attempts were going to waste at their very last stage – the last passes were inaccurate and imprecise, something that Lech has been struggling with for some time, hence Hapoel’s keeper didn’t have a lot of work to do. Neither did Bednarek, however, when Hapoel got a free kick from just outside his box minutes before the final whistle, the keeper was forced to focus. Fortunately for Lech, Helder Lopes’s shot flew above the crossbar.

Following the Thursday match, Lech stayed in Tel Aviv before flying to Katowice and then going to Zabrze ahead of the Sunday league game with Górnik.

Hapoel Beer Sheva - Lech Poznań 1:1 (1:1)

Goals: Hemed (9. – penalty) - Szymczak (44.)

Hapoel: Glazer – Abu Abaid (81. Selmani), Tibi, Vitor, Lopes – Micha, Bareiro (81. Shamir), Elias – Hatuel (59. Ansah), Hemed (72. Shechter), Suleymanov (72. Jehezkel).

Lech: Bednarek – Pereira, Dagerstal, Milić, Rebocho – Karlstrom, Murawski – Tsitaishvili (57. Velde), Szymczak (68. Amaral), Skóraś – Ishak.