Champions League qualifying play-off first leg: Hapoel Beer-Sheva vs Sabah facts

Hapoel Beer-Sheva and Sabah are both bidding to reach the league phase of the UEFA Champions League for the first time as they meet at the Stadionul Giulești in Bucharest in the opening leg of their qualifying play-off.

Previous meetings

This is the first meeting between the sides and Hapoel's first game against a team from Azerbaijan.

Sabah’s only meetings with an Israeli club came in the 2024/25 UEFA Conference League second qualifying round, where they eliminated Maccabi Haifa 3-2 on penalties after an extraordinary tie had finished 6-6 on aggregate. Sabah won the first leg in Hungary 3-0 and then lost 3-6 at home in Baku before progressing via the shoot-out.

Form guide

Hapoel Beer-Sheva

Hapoel Beer-Sheva are aiming to reach the Champions League proper for the first time. They would be the fourth Israeli club to feature, after Maccabi Haifa – the last representatives, in 2022/23 – Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Hapoel Tel-Aviv.

This is Hapoel Beer-Sheva's fourth Champions League qualifying campaign. Two of the previous three have ended in the qualifying play-offs, 4-5 on aggregate against Celtic in 2016/17 (2-5 a, 2-0 h) and on away goals against Maribor in 2017/18 (2-1 h, 0-1 a).

Sabah 

Sabah had never played in the European Cup before this season.

Indeed, this is only the Azerbaijan club's fourth European campaign – all in succession since their 2023/24 debut in the Conference League. That, like their next two European seasons, ended in that competition's third qualifying round.

Links and trivia

Both teams were eliminated in Conference League qualifying in 2025/26, Hapoel losing 0-1 on aggregate to AEK Athens in the second qualifying round and Sabah going down 0-3 against Levski Sofia in the third.

Hapoel have won seven of their ten two-legged ties in Champions League qualifying.

The Israeli club started this season in the second qualifying round, beating Víkingur Reykjavík 3-2 on aggregate (1-2 a, 2-0 h) and Crvena Zvezda 3-0 in the next stage (1-0 h, 2-0 a).

Hapoel have therefore won their last three matches without conceding.

Sabah are aiming to reach a European group stage/league phase for the first time. Qarabağ, in 2017/18 and 2025/26, are the only team from Azerbaijan to feature in the Champions League proper.

Sabah's first Champions League campaign began in this season's first qualifying round, where they beat Welsh side The New Saints 4-1 on aggregate (2-0 h, 2-1 a). They have subsequently overcome KuPS Kuopio of Finland 3-0 (1-0 h, 2-0 a) and Danish side Aarhus 5-2 (1-2 a, 4-0 h).

That means Sabah have won five of their six qualifying matches this season (L1), keeping a clean sheet in four of those victories.

Veljko Simić has scored in five of Sabah's six Champions League games this season, including the last four.