This was not a comfortable win. It was the kind of victory that leaves a team relieved, exhausted and a little bit louder about its own resilience than it probably was an hour earlier. Sabah Fk beat Hapoel Be'er Sheva 3-2 after extra time, and the margin matters because nothing about this match came easy.
That is what makes Tellur Mütallimov's intervention so important. In First Half Extra Time, with Sabah already leading 3-2, he provided the decisive strike from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. In a game that kept swinging, that was the moment that finally shut the door.
A match that refused to settle quietly
The final score tells you enough about the tension, but not the full story. By the time Second Half ended with Sabah 3, Hapoel Be'er Sheva 2, the contest had already forced both sides into a brutal test of concentration. There were shots, fouls, substitutions and even a yellow card along the way, which only underlined how little room either team had to breathe.
Sabah deserve credit for finding the answer when the pressure was heaviest. This was not a case of one team strolling through a mismatch. It was tight, competitive and decided only after extra time, which is exactly why the winning goal mattered so much. When a match reaches that stage, the difference between progress and frustration is usually one clean action. Mütallimov provided it.
For Hapoel Be'er Sheva, the frustration will be obvious. They were close enough to make this a real contest, but not close enough to survive it. For Sabah, the bigger point is simpler: they found a way. Not elegantly, not comfortably, but decisively. And in knockout football, that is often the only verdict that matters.
