- Title: ISRAEL: SOCCER - Hapoel beats Hamburg for top spot
- Date: 18th December 2009
- Summary: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (DECEMBER 17, 2009) (REUTERS) HAPOEL TEL AVIV COACH ELI GUTMAN ENTERING NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) TEL AVIV COACH ELI GUTMAN SAYING: "We played excellent game in the first 45 minutes, after the 1-0 of Yeboah. We deserved the leading of this game. In the second half Hamburg pressed us and they were more dominate. We managed to keep the results
- Embargoed: 2nd January 2010 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel
- Country: Israel
- Topics: Sports
- Reuters ID: LVA9AFF742YS8OR0TZUEC8Q6AJT9
- Story Text: Hapoel Tel Aviv beats Hamburg SV 1-0 to clinch top spot in UEFA's Europa League group C.
Hapoel clinched the top spot in UEFA's Europa League group C on Thursday (December 17) after beating Hamburg SV 1-0 in Bloomfield stadium in Tel Aviv.
A goal by Hapoel's Samuel Yeboah in the 23rd minute was all it took to provide the Israeli team with the victory needed to climb to the the top of the group.
"We played excellent game in the first 45 minutes, after the 1-0 of Yeboah. We deserved the leading of this game. In the second half Hamburg pressed us and they were more dominate. We managed to keep the results and I am very very proud to be part of this club," Hapoel's coach Eli Gutman told reporters after the match.
North German club finished second in the group and coach Bruno Labbadia was visibly disappointed and said his team lost the match in the first half.
"First of all I am very disappointed that we have not managed to clinch the top of the group. We didn't guard tight enough at the beginning of the match. We let Hapoel play, and they totally dominated the first half, even though we had several opportunities to strike one or two goals," Labbadia said in Tel Aviv.
"It's very sad that we lost the first place in the group tonight. I think we lost it in the first half when we were standing to far away from Hapoel players and we let them play. And we said before the match that when you let Hapoel play then they are really good and unfortunately we let that happen in the first half. I think we were able to turn that around in the second half, although we had opportunities also in the first half and if we went in the area more purposefully where there was more room then in the second half. But I think we have dominated the play in the second half but unfortunately we didn't take the most out of opportunities we had," he said.
In the group's other match, Celtic fought back from 3-0 down to draw 3-3 at Rapid Vienna, consigning the Austrians to last place.
The draw for the round of last 32 teams will take place on Friday (December 18), in Nyon, Switzerland, together with the draw for UEFA's Champions League top 16. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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