Haifa Out Of Champions League
Israeli champions Maccabi Haifa bowed out of the Champions League on Tuesday night after they lost 1-0 at home to Italian side Juventus.
The loss - their fourth consecutive defeat, not only means they#re still looking for their first point of the competition, but also their first goal.
Mauro Camoranesi's first half injury time goal proved to be the difference at the Ramat Gan stadium, as the Israelis once more battled well against one of European football's elite clubs, but once more fell short.
Manager Elisha Levy was scathing over his side's first half performance, though did find encouraging signs from the second half. He said: "We're very disappointed. Clearly, in the first half we didn't play as well as in our other games. Juve pegged us back and did not allow us to do the things we wanted to do.
"The first half was our weakest performance so far in this competition. The players cannot be faulted for a lack of effort or commitment because they did their best, but it wasn't enough."
Juventus dominated the first half and only several impressive saves from Nir Davidovitch kept the score level. Vladimir Dvalishvili came closest for Haifa though was denied by Gianluigi Buffon, before the Italians deservedly went ahead when Caoranesi slotted home from Martin Caceres' cross.
The second half saw less in the way of goalscoring chances created, though Davidovitch was by far the busier.
Haifa still have two games left - away to Bayern Munich in three weeks time, before they complete the group stage when they host French side Bordeaux at the beginning of December. Although unable to qualify for the knock-out stages of the Champions League, they do still have a chance of finishing third in the group, which would see them qualify for the knock-out stages of the Europa Cup.
