Maccabi Tel Aviv stays well ahead of pack

Maccabi Tel Aviv blanked Hapoel Haifa 1-0 in Israel Premier League play as Idan Nachmias headed home the first-half injury-time winner to take the points for the table leader.

“We have to start taking advantage of our opportunities,” Maccabi coach Robbie Keane said. “It’s not always going to be 1-0 and we have to be more accurate. We have to score more goals and we are playing well but we are having trouble finishing. When you have so many good chances you have to be better.”

“I expected that we would play better and that we wouldn’t lose,” Haifa coach Roni Levy explained. “We conceded a goal on a set-piece right before the break and the guys need to know that these critical minutes are ones that they need to manage properly. We had a chance to get back into the game, but we didn’t take advantage of it.”

In the capital city, Beitar Jerusalem downed Maccabi Petah Tikva 3-2 in a terrific end-to-end game at Teddy Stadium.The hosts got on the board first as Timoti Muzi slammed home a fourth-minute rebound to give the yellow-and-black a 1-0 lead, but Yarden Cohen drew the visitors even 20 minutes later. However, goals by Grigori Morozov and Yarden Shua sent Yossi Abukasis’s side into the break holding a 3-1 advantage.

Anas Mahamid pulled Petah Tikva to within 3-2 in the 71st minute, but that’s as close as Benny Lam’s team would get as Beitar took the victory.

“This was the best first half that the team has had since I have been here,” Abukasis said. “Anas Mahamid’s goal really put us under pressure and we tried to score a few more goals, but we just had some really big misses. It should have been an 8-2 game but the ball just wouldn’t go into the goal.”

“Every game somehow is decided in the opening four minutes,” Petah Tikva’s Lam began. We had to really be careful but we conceded and we were not in the game. We wanted to play in the second half and we had some great chances in the last half hour.”

At Bloomfield Stadium, Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Tel Aviv played to a goalless draw as the two teams split the points.

“This is a draw but it feels like a loss because we were always chasing after the other team,” Greens head coach Messay Dego said. “There’s nothing we can do, it was just a bad game by us. Our attacking game was very slow and our decisions weren’t good enough. I’m very disappointed, but we have to wake up as we have another game in just a few days.”

“We’re content as we played well and we were worthy to take three points,” Reds head coach Borja Lema said. “We made our fans happy and many of our players really performed well. It was great to have so many fans here with us. We worked hard and we can be proud of our play.”

Hapoel Beersheba dropped Ashdod SC 3-1

Jordan Botaka gave the hosts an early 1-0 lead but Yoni Stayonov quickly found the equalizer that was confirmed by the VAR (Virtual Assistant Referee) in the 20th minute. A red hot Rotem Hatuel gave the Southern Reds a 2-1 lead from in close in the 70th minute, while Antonio Sefer added the insurance goal roughly 20 minutes later to take the victory.”

“We have started to play much better over the past week,” Beersheba coach Elyaniv Barda said. “We gave up a quick goal but then we were able to come back and win at a very tough place to play. I believe that it was very important for the guys to win this game and show that they can continue their fine play of late.”

“It’s disappointing,” Ashdod coach Eli Levy said. “We started the game off well but there’s nothing we can do now except to keep going as we have yet another game midweek. We had some very good chances to score and when you don’t things become that much more difficult.”

Meanwhile, Hapoel Jerusalem slipped by Hapoel Petah Tikva 2-1 to snatch the points and the victory on the road at the Moshava Stadium.

Ofer Tesselpepe’s squad had a rough start as Golan Beni was issued a red card for a reckless tackle in the 17th minute, which allowed the Reds to take immediate advantage of the extra man with Cedric Don finding the back of the goal just two minutes later to take a 1-0 lead.

Karem Zoabi doubled the advantage deep into first-half injury time. While the hosts were able to pull back a goal via Ido David in the 83rd minute, that would be as close as Petah Tikva would get as Jerusalem wrapped up the win.

“This was a game that we should have won easily 3-0 or 4-0,” Jerusalem bench boss Ziv Arie said following the contest. “This has been our story for the entire round of games that everything has been very difficult which was the case yet again in this match. We do have a plan and we need to stick to it.”

“We gave up some easy goals but we also have to remember that we were playing with only 10 men,” Petah Tikva’s Tesselpepe said. “This is something that we have seen numerous times. You can’t play 80 minutes with just 10 players as we have a short squad and we are missing some very important players.”

Elsewhere, Maccabi Netanya crushed Hapoel Hadera 4-1 as new head coach Guy Tzarfati’s squad scored a pair of goals in each half to take the three points.

After 40 goalless minutes, Philip Ipole accidentally headed Maxim Plakuschenko’s free kick into his own net to give Netanya a 1-0 lead, while Oz Bilu doubled the advantage just before the break and Plamen Galabov scored Netanya’s third marker in the 51st minute.

Toni Gomes cut the lead to 3-1 from an attempt outside of the box, however Netanya’s Naftali Balay wrapped up the win with a 90th-minute header.

“This was a good result for an away game,” Tzarfati said following the contest. “I’m happy that we’ve been able to take six points now in the short time that I have been here... Still the players can give even more in terms of technical ability as a team.”

Finally, Bnei Sakhin defeated Maccabi Bnei Reineh 1-0 thanks to Sahar Tagi’s 82nd-minute goal to give Slobodan Drapic’s team the points.