Hapoel also lost their first group match after Argentinean Nicolas Frutos scored twice to give Anderlecht a home win in their opening fixture. The Belgian champions controlled the majority of the match comfortably, with Hapoel reduced to long range efforts as the Belgians held on to ensure the three points remained in Brussels. Hapoel have played four games against English opposition in Europe, winning one, drawing one and losing two. Their sole win came against Chelsea on their way to reaching the UEFA Cup Semi Final in 2001, eventually being knocked out by AC Milan after a historic home win at home in the first leg.
One current Tottenham player with memories of facing Hapoel in the UEFA Cup is Paul Robinson, who played for Leeds United when the two sides met in 2003. He should look back fondly on the two ties, with Leeds winning 5-1 over the two legs, Alan Smith scoring four goals in a 4-1 victory in Italy, after the match was switched to the Artemio Franchi Stadium in Florence amid concerns over the security situation in Israel at the time. These concerns were raised again when Liverpool prepared for their Champions League qualification match against Maccabi Haifa last August, after an area of Tel-Aviv was targeted by Hezbollah rockets in the weeks running up to the match. This will be the first time Tottenham have faced Israeli opposition and thankfully tensions in the area have died down, with no reported terrorist attacks in the past eighteen months.
On the pitch Hapoel, like Tottenham, are struggling in their domestic league this season. Having finished fourth last year, during a campaign featuring impressive home form which saw them lose just three games at the Bloomfield stadium, 'The Red Demons' as they are nicknamed, currently find themselves bottom of the league after eight matches, with no wins to their name. Their home form has been particularly shocking with the club having lost their last four home games, scoring just once and manager Guy Luzon faces an uphill battle to reverse the fortunes of a club that haven't won their domestic league for eight years.
Despite poor recent form, Hapoel have a great deal of experience of European club football and are unbeaten in their last six home matches in UEFA competitions. With Ramos desperate to get his new side back to winning ways after the 2-1 loss to Getafe, Thursday's match is one that the Spaniard will be very wary of. There is, however, a feeling around White Hart Lane that the UEFA Cup represents the clubs best chance to lift the cloud that has recently taken up residence over White Hart Lane, a feeling echoed by first team coach Gus Poyet, who is of the opinion that he would rather the club won a European trophy than finish fourth this season.
Few of the players Tottenham will face will be familiar to players or fans, with most of the side that have represented Israel so impressively in the UEFA Cup over the past eight years no longer with Hapoel. Captain of the current side team is combative midfielder Walid Badir, famed in his home country for scoring the winning goal for Israel against France in 2006 (For the more eagle eyed fan - he had a brief stint at Wimbledon in the late nineties, scoring against Manchester United at Old Trafford). Their goalkeeper is Nigerian international Vincent Enyeama, who looked under confident against Anderlecht. The Israeli clubs main threat could come from Lior Asulin, the former Maccabi Jerzliya striker who, since 2002 had loan spells at several different Israeli clubs, establishing himself as one of the leagues foremost marksmen. Rumour had it that a host of European clubs had been interested in the lithe striker, who bares passing resemblance to former Liverpool forward Milan Baros, before he signed for Hapoel Tel-Aviv during the summer.
Hapoel are politically associated with a socialist, left-wing ideology (and with the Histadrut, Israel's trade union congress,) which is ironic, in that Tottenham don't have a left-wing to speak of. With Gareth Bale out, as well as Benoit Assou Ekotto, Ramos is confronted with the same problem as his predecessor Martin Jol and must be creative if he is to balance his midfield. His selection policy against Middlesbrough was bold, if not a little rash, and in such an important game, Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane should be restored to the starting XI. Many of Berbatov's best performance last season came in the UEFA Cup, with his intelligence and ability to keep the ball an invaluable asset during away games. One must only look back to games against Besiktas and Leverkusen to remember how effective the Bulgarian can be. Hopefully being dropped at the weekend will be the kick in the backside the Bulgarian has needed.
As for balance in midfield, none of the players available to Ramos offer a definitive solution if he continues to play with an orthodox 4-4-2 formation. As we don't have defensive midfielders, or indeed wingers, of sufficient quality to play to Ramos' style, he may well continue to prefer Kevin Prince Boateng to Didier Zokora in midfield, with the German offering a little more dynamism. With much of Ramos' specific approach to matches yet to be seen he's difficult to second guess but Spurs fans will hope that he'll be positive in a game we really should be looking to win. 4-3-3 may well seem a little too ambitious away from home but Ramos will need to take risks if he is turn around our ailing fortunes.
Match Prediction - Hapoel 0 Tottenham 1 Considering how we've been playing I expect nerves and an unfamiliarity with the head coach to jar the vast majority of our attempts to play flowing attacking football. It will be scrappy and not particularly pretty but I hope, rather than expect, our superiority to tell over the ninety minutes.