It’s Israel v England in under 21s Euro football semi-final
Games takes place on Wednesday in Batumi, Georgia, and means Israel qualify for Paris 2024 Summer Olympics for the first time in nearly 50 years
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Israel will play against England in Wednesday’s semi-final of the under 21s European football championship.
The two teams meet for the second time in the tournament taking place in Georgia and Romania.
Israel progressed into the semis after they defeated Georgia 4-3 on penalty kicks after the game ended 0-0 after 120 minutes on Saturday.
Wednesday’s game takes place at 8pm local time (5pm UK time) in the Batumi Arena, Batumi, Georgia, and is expected to be streamed live on official websites.
On Sunday England defeated Portugal, a result that means Israel’s national soccer team qualified for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics for the first time in nearly 50 years.
Only four European soccer teams are guaranteed a spot in the Olympics, with the current competition serving as a qualifying round.
England cannot qualify because it participates as the United Kingdom, while the French national team has already secured its participation as the host.
England beat Israel 2-0 in Kutaisi last Sunday to seal Group C first place with a game to spare.
But Israel managed to still exit the group stage as runners-up.
After making it into the semi-finals Guy Luzon, Israel’s coach said: “I told the players that they are the children of the revolution of Israeli sports, of Israeli football. We are in the big four of Europe, in the Euro.. I am so proud.”
Morgan Gibbs-White, England’s midfielder added: “It’s a completely new game.
“Israel are even more hungry now they are in the semi-final of Euro.
“They are going to want revenge. We beat them in the group stage and now they are going to want to beat us, so we have got to make sure we are fully prepared, well rested, fully recovered and hopefully we can go again and get to the final.”
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