Fickle home crowd could turn on cautious Israeli side

THE last time Tel Aviv got this excited about a football match in its own back yard the Berlin Wall was still thumbing its grubby nose at the west.

The Israeli FA yesterday announced that every last one of the 41,000 tickets available for the Ramat Gan Stadium tomorrow has already been swiped up by a public buoyed by their country’s start to this latest World Cup qualifying campaign.

In fact, the last time tickets were not readily available on the morning of an Israeli home game was back in 1989, when Rene Higuita and Carlos Valderama hit town for a World Cup play-off with Colombia.