The Palestine angle was an obvious one on social media but there was plenty of football chat on twitter following Celtic’s Champions League draw against Hapoel Beer-Sheva.
After winning their first ever Israeli title they beat Olympiacos of Greece on a 1-0 aggregate having been exempt from the second round draw thanks to the Israeli co-efficient.
Hapoel have only played two European ties in the last decade losing both ties in the Europa League, last season 3-2 on aggregate to Swiss side Thun and 2-1 to Hadjuk Split the season before.
The win over Olympiacos however is clearly a game changer, a result that was noticed across the continent and marking Hapoel Beer Sheva as serious contenders to follow Maccabi Tel Aviv into the group phase.
At the same stage last season Maccabi beat FC Basel on away goals which gives an indicator of the standard of Israeli football even though Maccabi lost all six group matches.
After beating Olympiacos coach Barak Bakhar said: “It’s not only that we went through, it’s how we did it. The crowd backed us in a crazy way. We knew they’d be under pressure and saw we were in better physical shape. We believed from the start that we could get a good result against them.”
Goal scorer Shir Tzedek said: “It was amazing work from the whole team. We should get credit for cancelling out an excellent side. We were ready, our defense was very good.”
Scott Struthers visited Hapoel in April and kicked things off on twitter.
@videocelts Be’er Sheva is 80 mins south of Tel Aviv in the Negev Desert; stadium is under a year old holds 16000
— Scott Struthers ™ (@scottsas) August 5, 2016
Gotta be happy with that CL draw, Hapoel Be’er Sheva with first game at Celtic Park on August 16th/17 HH
— matt mcglone (@MattMcGlone9) August 5, 2016
@videocelts. Looking at their highlights v Olympiacos….i think we’ll need to take a lead over there. Looks an intimidating place
— Celtic Duck (@DavidHughes45) August 5, 2016
@videocelts Could have been worse.Decent chance to qualify.But we’re not good enough to disrespect them.
— william (@Green20William) August 5, 2016
@videocelts very tough game, long travel again need to keep clean sheet and 2 goal lead for me in first leg
— OAO Radio Show (@oaoradioshow) August 5, 2016
@videocelts positives are they have not started there season yet and play on grass, very solid and don’t concede many goals
— JohnHealey67 (@johnbhoyNO7) August 5, 2016