Hero's welcome for Tel-Aviv

Excited reaction
Thousands of fans gathered at the club's Bloomfield stadium after the match and celebrated into the night. Supporters carrying flags and scarves poured on to the streets, bringing traffic in Jaffa's Jerusalem Avenue to a halt. Others congregated at the airport where the country's minister of sport, Matan Vilnai, was waiting in a hangar to welcome the Tel-Aviv squad back on to Israeli soil after their heroic performance in the Ennio Tardini stadium. They now face another Italian opponent in with Milan AC, who travel to Tel-Aviv for the quarter-final first leg on 14 March.

'Giant step'
The Tel-Aviv side became the first Israeli team to qualify for the last eight of the tournament when goals from Milan Osterc and István Pisont secured a famous 2-1 aggregate success. Coach Dror Kashtan was delighted with his side's performance and heralded the result as a major step forward for Israeli football. "Hapoel Tel-Aviv showed the rest of Europe how an Israeli side can apply Italian tactics at the highest European level," he said. "We knew that if we scored, Parma would be forced to attack and expose their defence. This is an historic achievement. It's a celebration for Israeli football, which has just taken another giant step."

'Unbelievable fans'
Kashtan also paid tribute to the club's fans, 4,000 of whom had followed their side to Parma. He said: "We are all exhausted. But, before we all go home to our families I would like to thank the players who worked so hard, and the unbelievable fans who were our 12th player on the pitch."

Kashtan superstitious
Kashtan's wife, Zfira, who had dyed her hair red after victory over FC Lokomotiv Moscow in the previous round, had been ordered by her superstitious husband not to attend the match in Parma. "Dror wouldn't allow me because I didn't join them right from the start," she said. "But he will have a surprise in Milan as I don't intend to miss this trip". Kashtan's wife did not even watch Thursday's match on television. She explained: "My daughter was watching the game in the lounge and screamed twice when the goals were scored, so I walked in and saw the goals and went back out until the final whistle. Throughout the whole campaign I never believed they could do it and it seems to have helped."

Success surprises Abuksis
She was not alone in doubting that Tel-Aviv could go this far. Yossi Abuksis, who was one of the team's key performers in Parma, said: "At first I didn't think that winning was possible, but, as the minutes went by and the referee blew the final whistle I found myself looking around in disbelief."

'Amazing feeling'
Pisont, the Hungarian midfield player who scored Tel-Aviv's second goal, said: "It is an amazing feeling and one of those moments that proves why it's worth becoming a professional footballer," he said. "We are in the quarter-finals and no one can take this achievement from us, the feeling is just unbelievable."

'Credit to our coaching staff'
Tel-Aviv had clearly done their homework prior to the match and stifled almost all of Parma's attacking threat, including that of Marco di Vaio, joint-third in the Serie A goalscoring charts. Abuksis again: "Some teams qualify in an ugly manner but we did it in style and taught Parma a lesson. In fact, apart from not knowing what perfume their players use, we knew everything there was to know about them, which is a massive credit to our coaching staff."

Question mark over venue
Tel-Aviv officials must now decide whether to play the first leg of the quarter-final at their 17,000-capacity Bloomfield stadium or switch the tie to Ramat Gan, the national stadium which holds around 45,000 spectators. Discussions will take place over the weekend but the club's fans made it absolutely clear where they want the match to take place as the chant "We don't want Ramat Gan!" echoed round the airport terminal. Tel-Aviv's owner, Moshe Theumim, said: "Our fans are an integral part of the club and follow us everywhere we go. We will reach a decision after consulting them on the issue".