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Israel Manager Says Focus on Football, Not Fans, Ahead of Their Euros Playoff
Israel’s manager, Alon Hazan expressed his lack of concern regarding the upcoming “home” European Championship playoff match against Iceland in Hungary. He emphasized the team’s complete focus on the game itself, rather than the level of support they may receive in the stadium.
Hazan’s side have played their home matches in a neutral country for security reasons amid Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas, with their playoff against Iceland on Thursday taking place in Budapest’s Szusza Ferenc Stadion.
“We would love to play in front of our supporters in our country in this kind of situation, but we know what happened and we cannot host the game in Israel,” Hazan told reporters.
“So we’re focused only (about the game) here, we don’t care how many people will come to support, we would like as much as possible, but we’re focused only on football.”
Hazan also addressed comments reportedly made earlier this week by his Iceland counterpart Age Hareide on being hesitant to play Israel because of the civilian death toll in Gaza.
Hareide said his comments had been misunderstood.
“I don’t care if he said that before and now he has some sympathy for us,” Hazan added.
Israel or Iceland will face Bosnia or Ukraine for a spot in the Euro 2024 group stages in Germany, which begins on June 14.
