Israeli soccer clubs learned their opponents in UEFA qualifying, which begins in July as Maccabi Tel Aviv, Hapoel Beersheba, Maccabi Haifa, and Beitar Jerusalem will all aim to advance to the group stages of their respective competitions for the 2025/26 season.
Maccabi Tel Aviv will face Pafos FC from Cyprus in UEFA Champions League second-round qualifying action. Only the Israeli champion will be involved in attempting to advance to the continent’s premier competition, and the Cypriot club will give the yellow-and-blue all that it will be able to handle.
Zarko Lazetic’s Tel Aviv team entered the qualifying phase as a seeded club due to its high ranking score and will play the first game on the road on July 22 or 23, while it will host the return leg a week later at Backa Topola – FK TSC in Serbia due to the security situation in the Holy Land.
Of all the potential possibilities that could have been drawn, Pafos FC was perhaps the most difficult of the bunch as the Cypriot league champion played in Europe for the first time last season and made it all the way to the Round of 16 in the Conference League. Interestingly, Maccabi, which has been playing in Europe for years, has never won on the road in Cyprus.
Pafos FC has been owned by British businessman Roman Dubov since 2017 and has quickly become one of the most forward-thinking and modern teams in Cyprus, both on and off the pitch. Last season, it won its first-ever Cypriot Super League championship by seven points ahead of Aris Limassol and secured a place in the Champions League qualifiers.
The club is composed of foreigners with European experience, some of whom have even played in the continent’s top leagues.
Among the names leading the squad are midfielders Domingos Quina, who previously played in the English Premier League with Watford, as well as Ken Sema, who also played for Watford. Winger Mislav Orsic featured for Dinamo Zagreb and Trabzonspor and also adds experienced offensive depth, while on defense Derrick Luckassen is a familiar name who played with Maccabi Tel Aviv from 2022-2024 alongside Spaniard David Goldar.
Since the arrival of head coach Juan Carlos Carcedo in the summer of 2023, Pafos has presented a neat style of play, with ball possession and tactical discipline that has won praise across Europe. Last season, the club also reached the Round of 16 in the Conference League, thanks to a pair of victories over Omonia Nicosia in a historic Cypriot European derby in the Knockout Round and displayed an average pass accuracy of 84.2% throughout the campaign.
Other notable names in Carcedo’s squad are Croatian National Team keeper Ivica Ivusic, the experienced Portuguese central midfielder Pepe, Ivan Sunjic from Birmingham, who is a tough defensive midfielder, and Brazilian Anderson Silva, who provides solid goal scoring for the club.
Maccabi Tel Aviv, which has suffered qualifying difficulties in recent years, needs to prepare very seriously for this team, otherwise it could find itself out of Europe before the end of July.
Hapoel Beersheba, under coach Ran Kozuk, will begin the 2025/26 season with Europa League qualifiers and will look to beat Levski Sofia in the first round.
The opening match will be held on July 10, and the return match will take place a week later, as the Bulgarian outfit was one of the most challenging draws that the Southern Reds could have received.
Home match to be played outside of Israel
The home match will be played outside of Israel due to the ongoing security situation, and while Sofia at least on paper does not look as strong as Beersheba, any team that has reached a European competition is considered an obstacle especially at this stage of the season.
Beersheba is familiar with Levski Sofia after playing a pair of games against the club back in 2023/24 in the third round of Conference League qualifying, when the Israeli side fell 2-1 in the first leg and played to a goalless draw in the second.
Last season, the Southern Reds played another team from Bulgaria, Cherno More, and defeated it 2-1 on aggregate. Coach Julio Velazquez has a number of players that Beersheba will need to look out for, including Bulgarian forward Aleksandar Kolev and Mali striker Mustapha Sangaré.
Should Hapoel Beersheba advance to the second round, it will play SC Braga from Portugal in what will be a very tough draw to pass.
Maccabi Haifa will enter European play in the second round of UEFA Conference League action against the winner of the FC Torpedo-Belaz from Belarus and FK Rabotnicki from Macedonia matchup.
Finally, Beitar Jerusalem will also start its continental journey in the second round of the Conference League and will face the winner of the first-round tie between FK Sutjeska-Niksic from Montenegro and FC Dynamo Brest of Belarus.