Beitar Jerusalem face an uphill face an uphill task in their attempts to reach the Europa League Group Stage for the first time after slumping to a 2-1 home defeat to French outfit St. Etienne in the playoff round on Wednesday night.
Beitar travel to France for next Thursday's second leg needing to score at least two goals in order to advance.
All three goals came in the first half hour as Beitar started superbly and Lidor Cohen headed just wide after two minutes. Beitar took the lead after eight minutes as their former Swansea striker Itay Shechter seized on a defensive error and squared the ball to Idan Vered who shot home, firm and low from the edge of the area.
The 25,000 fans in Teddy Stadium were ecstatic.
But that was as good as it got as the visitors suddenly came to life. Beitar's lead lasted just seven minutes before Fabien Lemoine slotted home the equaliser.
Then on the half hour, Florentin Pogba - Paul's older brother - shot home with the help of a deflection from Beitar's Spanish defender Jesus Rueda to put St. Etienne in front, after Beitar keeper Boris Kleyman missed a cross. St. Etienne sat back in the second half and let Beitar dominate the midfield.
Beitar manager Ran Ben Shimon said, "I hate to lose but we did a lot of good things tonight. They have quality and took advantage of it."
● HAPOEL Beer Sheva's Champions League hopes were blown apart after a 5-2 hammering by Celtic in their qualifying play-off first leg match.
Celtic were 3-0 up at half-time, but goals from Lucio Maranhao and Maor Meikson early in the second half had given Hapoel hope of a shock result.