Maccabi Haifa dominated Beitar Jerusalem 3-0 as the Greens outplayed the yellow-and-black throughout the 90 minutes to take the victory and knock Barak Itzhaki’s team out of first place as Hapoel Beersheba defeated Hapoel Petah Tikva 4-2.
Navot Ratner’s header gave Barak Bachar’s side a 1-0 lead in the 15th minute, while former Beitar forward Silva Kani doubled the advantage in the 60th minute. Second-half substitute Trivante Stewart added the cherry on top with the final goal as the striker sent a scorcher from inside the box past Silva to hand the hosts the points and the win.
“We needed to make some changes after our game against Hapoel Tel Aviv,” Bachar began. “We were able to do that somewhat in our matches against Petah Tikva and Beersheba, and then versus Beitar, we finally saw everything come together, and we were able to take a dominating win.
"There are games where we start well but can’t score, and then we concede and have issues trying to come back, but here we were able to fend off Beitar and score first, which allowed us to control the game.”
Itzhaki also spoke about the match that was from Jerusalem’s perspective.
“The issue was that we may have controlled the ball, and then when we lost the ball, Haifa went on the counter and took advantage of that a number of times. This wasn’t a good game from us all in all, and the pace wasn’t what I had expected. There was some fatigue, but that’s not an excuse, as everyone is playing every few days.
"We have a game in a few days that we need to win, and even though in my time as head coach, we haven’t beaten them, we will have to do that. We have the best players and the best team, and we have to prove that in the next game on Tuesday against Hapoel Beersheba.”
Beitar captain reflects on loss
“We needed to score the chances we had, and we’ll have to go into the next game and win that," said Beitar captain Yarden Shua, reflecting on the loss. "We did the best we could, and we’ll keep our heads high. The guys understand the importance of the game on Tuesday, and we will do the best that we can.
"Playing every three days is not easy, and that takes a toll on any team, but we will have our fans at home against Hapoel Beersheba on Tuesday, who were amazing in this game.”
Hapoel Beersheba downed Hapoel Petah Tikva as Javon East recorded a hat-trick to move the Southern Reds into first place by a pair of points over Beitar Jerusalem.
Beersheba grabbed an early lead when Kings Kangwa found Roie Levy with a terrific through-ball as the latter beat Omer Katz for, while Javon East doubled the advantage by polishing off a nice team play by Kangwa and Matan Baltaxa.
East added his second of the game in first-half injury time thanks to a Muhammad Abu Romi cross to send Ron Kozuk’s team into the break with a 3-0 lead. Yonatan Cohen pulled a goal back from the penalty spot in the 55th minute, and Shavit Mazal cut the lead to 3-2 in the 85th minute, but East completed his hat trick in second-half injury time to close out the win.
Kozuk looked back at the win.
“Moving into first place? Now we need to make sure we don’t lose it. I want to see us go as far as possible, all the way to the end. I trust my squad 100%, and I’ve said it a million times, and I’m not just saying it for the sake of saying it; I say it because I truly trust them. I think they played maybe one of our best first halves of the season, especially with all six changes to the lineup from the previous match. I trust them, I trust them 100%.
"I know this squad can take us to a championship. We just need to be there in certain moments when we start getting scared for no reason, but I really, really trust my squad.”
Petah Tikva assistant coach Yuval Shpungin talked about the loss.
“Wow, we didn’t show up, we didn’t perform in the first half, we were even disgraceful. We prepared well, we know them, and everything we talked about, we simply didn’t do. We weren’t there. Not in the battles, not in the attitude, not in the energy, not in the pressing, nothing, nothing. Honestly, it was embarrassing. I apologize to the fans and everyone connected to Hapoel Petah Tikva for that half. They were absolutely right to boo us.”
At the Tel Aviv Derby, Hapoel and Maccabi drew 1-1 as Dor Peretz scored in the first half for the yellow-and-blue and Roy Korine scored the late equalizer to split the points at Bloomfield Stadium.
Reds head coach Elyaniv Barda spoke about the draw, “We proved who the best team is in this city as we controlled the game for the full 90 minutes. We really deserved the three points as only their first shot on target went into the goal. We missed a penalty as well, so we will take the point and continue on.”
Maccabi coach Kenny Miller looked back at the draw.
“We’re disappointed as this was a game that we didn’t show our quality enough but we did score. It’s disappointing to concede a late goal, but it was a good chance in the box, and it went in. Every match is tough as we are playing all of the top teams.”
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