After the tribute in front of Kosovo to the eight-year-old Neve, who was kidnapped in Gaza, at the press conference last night (3) ahead of Switzerland, the captain of the Israeli national team, Eli Dassa, presented Neve's sneakers and said: "This boy is currently in Gaza with seven members of his family, this is all that is left of his house, His left shoe. We'll wait for him here."
Before the game against Kosovo, the Israeli national team uploaded a video for Neveh and dedicated a shirt to him in the dressing room. Tonight the national team will play the second game out of four games in a week and a half. The team will "host" Switzerland at the Puskas Stadium in Budapest, Hungary, knowing that despite the loss to Kosovo, they still depend on themselves. If they win the remaining three games, they will qualify for the Euros.
Currently Switzerland with the same number of games as Israel is four points above her, while Romania with an extra game is five above her. If Israel wins the three remaining games, it will overtake Romania, and qualify for the Euros. The Swiss team is a strong team, that as mentioned, has not yet secured its promotion, so today's game will not be easy. So what will happen if the Israeli team loses points today?
Will the Israeli national team manage to recover from the loss to Kosovo?
If Israel draws today, they will need a Swiss loss in their remaining two games against Kosovo and Romania to overtake them along with blue-and-white wins over Romania and Andorra. If Israel loses to the Swiss, its chances of overtaking them will be lost. Against Romania, the situation is better, when in the case of a draw or loss against Switzerland, Israel will have to beat the Romanians and the Andorrans and hope for the Romanians to lose some points against the Swiss to overtake them.
As I remember at the beginning of the week, the dream got further away when the Israeli national team lost to Kosovo 0:1 and moved away from the dream of the historic promotion to the Euros. Many hopes were shattered, Eran Zahavi returned to the national team, and the tremendous support from the people did not help the team that seemed disjointed, when, even the bad grass that Zahavi defined as a: "Pigsty" did not contribute to the game.
The game started with Israeli control, but the players had difficulty passing the ball in the mud and the pouring rain, and four minutes before the break, Milot Rashica gave the late players the lead. The entry of Dor Turgeman, Mohammad Abu Fani, and later Ramzi Safouri and Idan Toklomati did not help either, as the hole deepened in extra time with Roy Revivo receiving a second yellow card and missing the game against Switzerland.
At the team's disposal is Eran Zahavi, the team's all-time top goalscorer, who returns to the squad after a long saga, after he and Yossi Banyon managed to overcome the disagreements, in favor of the team in the shadow of the situation. In Zahavi's last 31 games on the national team, he scored no less than 27 goals, which brought him the team's goalscoring record.
