Israel’s soccer team qualifies for Olympics for first time in nearly 50 Years
Israel’s Under-21 national soccer team celebrates after defeating Georgia in the European Championship quarter-finals on July 1, 2023 in Tbilisi, Georgia. Photo by Getty Images
This article originally appeared on Haaretz, and was reprinted here with permission. Sign up here to get Haaretz’s free Daily Brief newsletter delivered to your inbox.
Israel’s Under-21 national soccer team qualified for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics on Sunday for the first time in nearly 50 years after reaching the European Championship semi-finals on Saturday night.
Israel’s third Olympic appearance was secured after England defeated Portugal 1:0 in the Under-21 tournament quarter-finals. Israel’s soccer team last appeared in the Olympics in Mexico City in 1968 and in Montreal in 1976.
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.
On Saturday night, Israel defeated Georgia, co-host of the tournament along with Romania, 4-3 on penalty kicks after the game ended 0-0 after 120 minutes.
Georgia, who stunned everyone by advancing to the quarter-finals after finishing first in its group, received a boost from 44 thousand fans, most of them local, at Tbilisi’s Boris Paichadze Stadium.
“There are millions in Israel behind us who are watching the screens and want our favor,” Israel’s U-21 manager, Guy Luzon, stated before the game. “I believe our job is to make them yell so that we can hear them all the way here.”
The English squad that will face Israel in the semi-finals is one of the strongest in the tournament, having defeated the Israeli team 2-0 just a week ago. It has a number of good and well-known players, like Arsenal’s Emile Smith Rowe, Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones, Aston Villa’s Jacob Ramsey, and others.
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