Hapoel Beer-Sheva saw off Sabah 2:1 in the UEFA Champions League play-offs at Toto Turner Stadium on Tuesday evening. The hosts took a narrow lead through V. Simic in the first half, then held firm after J. East extended their advantage before half-time. Sabah pulled one back late on through I. Zlatanovic, but the visitors could not find an equaliser.
Simic opened the scoring in the sixth minute, firing past the keeper from close range. Hapoel controlled the tempo after that, and East doubled their advantage in the forty-third minute with a well-taken effort. The visitors had little to show for their possession after the break, struggling to create anything meaningful in the final third.
By then, the match had settled into a pattern the hosts understood well. Sabah made changes to their side — Severina and Ahmed came on in the fifty-sixth and sixty-sixth minutes respectively — but the game was already slipping from their grasp. East was replaced in the seventy-first minute, and Zlatanovic's late goal in the seventy-ninth gave the visitors a glimmer of hope.
The statistics told a clear story. Hapoel held 67 per cent possession and registered 133 attacks compared to Sabah's 71. They took 23 shots, seven on target, while the visitors managed five attempts with three on target. Expected goals stood at 2.01 for the hosts and just 0.6 for Sabah. They created three big chances against two for the away side.
This result keeps Hapoel Beer-Sheva in the hunt for European football next season. A win like this, especially against a side that refused to go away, matters more than the numbers. Sabah's recent form — four wins and a defeat in their last five — offered no guarantee of success here. The hosts have hit a wall in domestic competition, but European nights like this remind them how far they can still reach.