Anestis, Beersheba blown out by Dinamo in 1st leg
Hapoel Beersheba is having a hard time digesting the nightmare of purchasing goalkeeper Giannis Anestis following its 5-0 defeat to Dinamo Zagreb in the first leg of the Champions League second qualifying round on Tuesday night.
The Greek, who came in as the starting goalkeeper at Beersheba in place of Guy Haimov, opened his term with the Israeli champion in a terrible fashion, and it seems that he will have a hard time recovering from his dismal debut. Anestis was at fault on almost every one of Beersheba’s conceded goals vs Zagreb, which reduced the energies of all his teammates, who followed on the weak effort of their ’keeper.
“Anestis is a charming guy and he is improving from a coaching session,” said a source close to the club. “There’s no question at all that his performance tonight was very concerning, but the club will not take rash decisions from moment to moment, first of all let things relax, examine things and then make the decision that will be best for the team professionally,” added the same source.
Voices close to Beersheba claim that the Greek’s nagging display significantly hurt his chances of starting in the near future, and management is expected to decide in the coming days whether or not to keep Anestis.
“There is nothing to be done, it will take Anstice time to regain the confidence of the defensive unit,” a number of players said.
While the chances of qualifying for the next stage of the Champions League qualifying are slim to impossible, Beersheba will have an opportunity save its European campaign by qualifying for the European League group stage, when the third qualifying round kicks off against the strong Cypriot side Apoel Nicosia.
Anstice’s contract is estimated at 250,000 euros, not including threeyear bonuses, so if the Beersheba wants to part ways with the Greek ’keeper, the team will have to push its hands deep into it pockets, and it is already in a similar problem with a number of other players who are not in the plans, such as Mohammed Gadir, Haimov and Tomas Pekhart.
In other Israeli soccer action, Maccabi Tel Aviv will host Serbian side Radnicki on Thursday night in the first leg of their Europa League second qualifying round tie, while Hapoel Haifa will entertain Iceland club FH.
On TV: Europa League 2nd qualifying round first leg: Hapoel Haifa vs FH (live on Sport 2 at 7 p.m.); Maccabi Tel Aviv vs Radnicki (live on Sport 1 at 8 p.m.)