Red Star Belgrade had just one bad match this season. This squad has quality and experience to bounce back from last week’s loss and advance to the UCL playoffs.
Key Stats
- Red Star Belgrade have won by 2 or more goals in 5 of their last 6 matches.
- Hapoel Beer Sheva have lost 2 of their last 4 matches.
One Previous Meeting
Last week’s clash on a neutral court in Hungary was the first head to head match between these sides.
Manager Dejan Stankovic Under Pressure Already
Red Star Belgrade entered last week’s tie against Hapoel Beer Sheva as light favorites but lost 1-0. Goalkeeper Mateus made a huge mistake leading to goal in the 38th minute, while they had 19-7 shots total, Bruno Duarte missing one big chance to equalize.
Before this clash, the Serbian champions played four games this season, won all four with a goal difference of 17-1.
They cruised past Larne 9-0 on aggregate in the previous UCL round, while also dominating Macva 5-0, Vojvodina 3-1 and Novi Pazar 3-0 in the Serbian Superliga.
Hapoel Holding Minimal Advantage
Hapoel Beer Sheva started the new season with a convincing 3-1 defeat to Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Israeli Super Cup finals, allowing 2.25 xG and 18 shots to the opposition.
The Israeli side failed to impress in the previous UCL qualifying round, losing the first tie to Vikingur 2-1 in Reykjavik but then bounced back and won the second match 2-0, Zahi Ahmed and Amir Ganah on target.
Zahi Ahmed scored against Red Star Belgrade last week, taking advantage of a huge error by the opposition goalkeeper just before the break. Eliel Perez scored a beautiful long-range goal in the second half but it got disallowed by VAR due to offside.
Team News & Predicted Lineups
Red Star Belgrade (4-2-3-1) Matheus; Young-Woo Seol, Derrick Luckassen, Strahinja Erakovic, Nair Tiknizyan; Mohammad Abu Fani, Vasilije Kostov; Osman Bukari, Mirko Ivanic, Marko Arnautovic
Veteran Marko Arnautovic is expected to replace Bruno Duarte for this clash. Rade Krunic and Adem Avdic are injured.
Hapoel Be'er Sheva (4-3-3) Ofir Marciano; Guy Mizrahi, Miguel Vitor, Itay Rotman, Pedro Amador; Niv Yehoshua, Lucas Ventura, Eliel Peretz; Javon East, Igor Zlatanovic, Zahi Ahmed
Matan Baltaxa is serving a one-game suspension, while Dan Biton and Joao Victor are injured.
Matan Baltaxa is serving a one-game suspension, while Dan Biton and Joao Victor are injured.