Blue-and-white drops points against Kosovo

The Israel National Team fell at Kosovo 1-0 late Sunday night to put a damper on its chances to qualify for the 2024 Euro.

The blue-and-white came into the game with plenty of emotions due to the Hamas attack on Israel that saw over 1,200 people murdered and 240 hostages being held in Gaza. But on a difficult Pristina pitch in driving rain, head coach Alon Hazan’s squad had difficulty creating opportunities and couldn’t find the back of the goal as the hosts controlled the pace of play throughout, finding the lone marker via Milot Rashica just ahead of halftime to wrap up the three points.

The matchup with Kosovo was Israel’s first of four games in nine days as it looks to secure a place in this coming summer’s European Championships that are slated to be held in Germany. Following the trip to Kosovo, Hazan and his charges now head to Hungary where they will host both Switzerland and Romania at the Puskás Akadémia Pancho Aréna in Felcsút just outside of Budapest on Wednesday and Saturday night, respectively.  The final qualification clash will be the next Tuesday at Andorra. All three games are now probably must-wins should Israel have any designs of heading to the Euro.

“I think the first half we weren’t in the game and Kosovo didn’t do much as well,” Hazan said. “But in the second half we controlled the game and we were able to get off a number of attacks. We were focused and we wanted to bring some comfort for the people of Israel. It’s too bad we couldn’t do that but it’s the first of four games and we will see what we can do.”

The vantage point

Israel’s Eran Zahavi looked back at the game from his vantage point.

“The field was more of a pigsty than a pitch and we didn’t take the points. We will have to give it our all in the games against Switzerland and Romania and truth be told not much changed with us losing… We will do whatever we can to advance, we made one mistake and we paid for it but we will turn it around.”

Hazan made sure to start players who have been in playing shape in order to get the best result against a Kosovo team that drew with Israel 1-1 back in the Holy Land.

Red Star Belgrade’s Omri Glazer started in goal while the back four included Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Roy Revivo, Hapoel Beersheba captain Miguel Vitor, Maccabi Haifa defender Sean Goldberg and captain Eli Dasa, who plies his trade for Dynamo Moscow.

Manning the midfielder were Neta Lavi of Japan’s Osaka, Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Dor Peretz, who scored a pair of goals in his club’s Conference League win last Thursday, and Gadi Kinda who features for Kansas City in the MLS.

Up front was a trio of starlet Oscar Gloukh, who plays for Red Bull Salzburg, Antalyaspor’s Sagiv Yehezkel and Maccabi’s Zahavi who returned to the national team for the first time in this campaign.

Zahavi had a falling out with sports director Yossi Benayoun over sleeping arrangements and retired from the blue-and-white, but at the outset of the war and with Manor Solomon being out due to a knee injury, Israel’s all-time goal scoring leader buried the hatchet with Benayoun in a sign of unity for the nation.

The Kosovo fans jeered the Israeli anthem Hatikvah and every time a blue-and-white player touched the ball as the match got under way on a waterlogged pitch due to teeming rain.

Scoring chances were few and far between over the first quarter-hour as each side had trouble moving the ball on the field of play because of the poor conditions.

Sagiv Yehezkel needed to be substituted off in the 23rd minute due to an injury and was replaced with Gaby Kanichowsky, who scored the winning goal in the last qualifier against Belarus back in September.

However, as the contest headed towards the break, Vedat Muriqi sent a fantastic ball to Rashica, who broke through both Vitor and Dasa and then beat a helpless Glazer to send Kosovo into halftime with a 1-0 advantage.

Hazan made one change to begin the second half as striker Dor Turgeman entered the fray for an ineffective Kinda.Rashica and Muriqi each had the opportunity to double the Kosovo advantage but Glazer was once again the man of the hour making saves like an octopus in the 60th minute.

More wholesale changes came for Israel in the 72nd minute as Ramzi Safouri and Idan Gorno came on to refresh the attack as Israel looked to find the tying goal.

Gloukh and Zahavi each had half chances in the box, but both came up empty as the blue-and-white searched for an equalizer that never came.