Maccabi Haifa dominated Maccabi Tel Aviv on Monday night to take the Israeli classico 2-0 to the delight of the fans at Sammy Ofer Stadium.
The Greens went to work early as Lorenco Simic pounded home a poor clearance by yellow-and-blue ’keeper Roie Mishpati to give the hosts a quick 1-0 lead in the third minute. Messay Dego’s squad doubled the advantage less than 20 minutes later when Gadi Kinda stole the ball from Dor Peretz in the box and sent it to Dean David, who easily slotted it by Mishpati for a 2-0 advantage that they would hold onto for the balance of the game to take the victory.
“We’re very happy,” Dego said after the game. “Every game that we have played Maccabi Tel Aviv it’s been totally different and in this one we had to play very tactically because we knew how strong they are and that we recently lost to them in the Toto Cup. But we showed that for good or for bad it’s all up to us, Maccabi Haifa.”
“If you look at the chances that we had, we should have scored in every game,” Maccabi coach Robbie Keane said. “We had very good opportunities that we needed to finish, or at least make the ’keeper work. When you make a mistake against a good team you are going to be punished and that was the case.”
The result saw Maccabi Haifa leapfrog Maccabi Tel Aviv into first place in the Premier League, with both teams on 45 points from 20 games, but the Greens holding the edge on goal-differential.
Meanwhile, Hapoel Jerusalem shocked Beitar Jerusalem 2-1 with two late goals to take the Capital City derby in dramatic fashion and paint the town red.
Adi Yona opened the scoring in the first half to give the yellow-and-black a 1-0 lead, but Idan Dahan found the back of the goal in the 88th minute to draw Hapoel even while Matan Hozez scored three minutes later to take the win.
Prior to the game, Beitar head coach Yossi Abukasis shocked the club when he resigned due to constant booing by the fans over the past couple of months. As expected, Abukasis was named the new bench boss of Hapoel Tel Aviv’s on Tuesday.
“We played back somewhat in the second half,” said Gal Cohen, Beitar’s interim coach. “Hapoel barely threatened us all game long and the result doesn’t really reflect the match. We were much more dangerous than they were and that was also the case in the second half.”
“The first half wasn’t great by either side,” Hapoel coach Ziv Arie said. “But the guys wanted this so badly despite the fact that we were soft and lost a lot of the battles in the first half. However, the second half was under our control and we played our style. We played so many good games this season where we didn’t get a result and here we did even though I feel that this one should have been a draw.”
Up in the Galilee, Hapoel Beersheba blanked Bnei Sakhnin 2-0 as the Southern Reds won their 10th game in a row in rough conditions at Doha Stadium.
As the first half neared its end, Mariano Barreira was issued a straight red card after yanking down Alexandru Paun to give Sakhnin a man to the good for the second half. However, in the 60th minute the hosts lost Stéphane Oméonga to a red card as well, leaving both sides with 10 men for the final half-hour of action.
Helder Lopes scored a 90th-minute penalty while Alon Turgeman added an insurance marker deep into second-half injury-time to sew up the victory.
“This was a very tough game on a hard pitch to play on,” Beersheba coach Elyaniv Barda said. “However, we knew that this would be the case from the start. We knew that if we didn’t win it would be as if we did nothing, but everyone believed that we could and despite perhaps not playing our best we still knew how to take the points.”
“It’s disappointing as we played decently,” Sakhnin coach Slobodan Drapic said. “It’s too bad we couldn’t string together another win and fight for a spot in the championship playoffs. We are looking ahead and I always want to be optimistic.”
At Bloomfield Stadium, Hapoel Tel Aviv downed Ashdod SC 3-1 thanks to two second-half goals to take the win.
After a goalless first half, the Reds got to work as Mavis Tchibota took a Hisham Layout ball, turned and scored to give the hosts a 1-0 lead in the 60th minute. Less than a quarter-hour later, Layous doubled the advantage by taking care of a loose ball in the box, while just minutes after that Alen Ozbolt added a third goal off a Dan Einbinder pass to go up 3-0.
Tom Ben Zaken pulled back a late injury-time goal for Ashdod, but that marker would be too little, too late as Hapoel notched the win.
Also, Maccabi Petah Tikva slipped by Maccabi Netanya 1-0 as Idan Gorno headed home the lone goal in the 86th minute to ice the win and snatch all the points.
“I have to take my hat off to the players,” Petah Tikva coach Ron Kozuk said. “They put in an incredible battle. We have to be smart and also understand how to play as per the condition of the pitch. Everyone who played in this game was terrific, and to hold Netanya to basically no chances is phenomenal.”
Elsewhere, Hapoel Haifa defeated Hapoel Petah Tikva 2-0 as the visitors scored a pair of goals in the second half to take the victory.
Guy Melamed opened the scoring in the 60th minute as the striker nodded in the first goal of the match, while Bar Lin found the back of the goal almost a half-hour later to secure the points.
“This was a very important win,” Haifa coach Roni Levi said. “We showed a lot of character especially after our last game where we were winning 4-0 and then we gave up three goals, which could really hurt our confidence. We played well tactically and wrapped up the game in the second half.”
“We weren’t very good in the second half,” Petah Tikva bench boss Ofer Tesselpepe said. “Hapoel Haifa was the better team and won the game. We tried to make some substitutions to get back into the game but we conceded a late goal which wrapped up the game.”
Up north, Maccabi Bnei Reineh got by Hapoel Hadera 2-1 as Muhammed Osman scored the winning marker in a game that saw all of the goals come in the second half.
After a goalless first half, Bnei Reineh grabbed a 1-0 lead when Osman delivered a nice ball to Freddy Gondola, who found the far corner for the hosts. However, Elad Madmon scored the equalizer for Hadera five minutes later to even up the score at 1-1.
In the 69th minute, Osman scored to give Reineh the lead for good as Sharon Mimer’s team took the three points and the triumph.