Maccabi Haifa reaches last 16 of UEFA Cup
Greens beat CSKA Moscow 1-0 at Bloomfield Stadium, thanks to goal scored by Colautti in first half
Maccabi Haifa secured a significant scalp in 2005 winners CSKA Moscow, Argentine-born striker Roberto Colautti netting the only goal of the first knockout round tie in the first half at the Bloomfield stadium in Tel Aviv.
Maccabi, whose best run in Europe was reaching the Cup Winners' Cup quarter-finals in 1998/99, stunned Russian champions CSKA thanks to Israel international Colautti.
Maccabi players celebrate (Photo: Tsafrir Abayov)
The striker stabbed home after 14 minutes when the CSKA defence failed to clear the danger following a corner.
In spite of the bad season the greens are going through in the local arena, coach Ronny Levy managed to lead his players to impressive achievements in Europe.
"This is a very happy moment," Levy said. "We gained victory over a great team and this is a great achievement for the club, the players, the wonderful audience. Our entire club deserves this achievement.
"We are not settling for reaching the last 16 and want to continue going forward. This is a breakthrough for our club and we hope to continue like this. This is not one man's work. We have been characterized by team spirit and I am proud of everyone."
Also Thursday, Hapoel Tel Aviv lost 0-4 to the Glasgow Rangers in the first UEFA Cup knockout round. Scorers for the Rangers included Barry Ferguson, Kris Boyd and Charlie Adam.
