The Israel Premier League championship race will go down to the final day of the season on Sunday as Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv will both have a chance to claim the title.
The Greens could have clinched their first championship in a decade on Wednesday night at Ironi Kiryat Shmona, however Barak Bachar’s club drew 1-1 with the northerners while the yellow-and-blue kept its hopes alive with a 2-1 win at Ashdod SC setting up for a dramatic finale.
Maccabi Haifa traveled up to Kiryat Shmona accompanied by over 5,000 loyal fans who came to see their club take their first championship since the 2010/11 campaign.
However, 18-year old Mike Amanga’s injury-time strike for Kobi Refuah’s team cancelled out a Godsway Donyoh goal to keep the champagne on ice as the match ended in a draw.
After a goalless first half, Bachar brought on super-substitute Donyoh in the 56th minute in place of an ineffective Nikita Rukavystya in a move that paid dividends a quarter-hour later. Sun Menachem sent Donyoh a terrific pass as the striker slipped the ball between Kiryat Shmona ’keeper Dziugas Bartkus and the right post to give the Greens a 1-0 lead sending their supporters into ecstasy.
But the joy was short-lived as Amanga rifled home a tremendous marker past Haifa shot-stopper Josh Cohen to stun the fans and see the teams split the points.
Maccabi Haifa will now have to wait until Sunday to try and sew up the title when it welcomes Hapoel Beersheba to Sammy Ofer Stadium.
Bachar, who needed to literally and figuratively pick the players up off of the pitch and lead them to the locker-room following the game, spoke about the disappointing result.
“What has happened, happened and now I’ve got to pick up the guys and make sure they know that we are in charge of our own destiny. We need to win and become champs. We would have signed off on this opportunity at the start of the season. We needed to defend for just one more minute. It reminds me of my first title with Beersheba, when we lost on the second-to-last matchday and then we won., It was tough but it will be sweet if we do it right at the end.
“We blew a chance to win the championship now, but we will be playing at home in front of over 30,000 fans and will come to win right from the get-go. It won’t be easy, but we have time to prepare but I know that we can do it. This is part of the beautiful game and I am certain that on Sunday we will finish the job.”
Refuah enjoyed watching his team playing the role of spoiler and the Kiryat Shmona also reflected on the game.
“Before the game everyone wanted to know how many goals we were going to give up. We have a very strong team that gave 200% effort. I have to take my hat off to the players. This was like an away game for us with so many Haifa fans, but they got our players going.”
Down south, meanwhile, Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated Ashdod SC 2-1 at the port city to keep its title hopes alive and well.
Eduardo Guerrero broke a goalless deadlock in the 77th minute when he roofed the ball into the Ashdod goal following a scramble in the box. Eylon Almog doubled the advantage 10 minutes later in close off a Guerrero assist while Zakaria Mugees pulled a goal back just before the final whistle to break up Daniel Tenenbaum’s clean sheet.
The yellow-and-blue will host Ironi Kiryat Shmona at Bloomfield Stadium on Sunday as it will look to win and hope that Haifa loses in order to take the league title for the second straight season.
“First of all, we won our game here which puts pressure on Haifa,” said Maccabi coach Patrick van Leuwen. “We saw that they couldn’t do what was needed and the battle will go to the end. We will prepare as always to win and we don’t feel any pressure. I believe that we did a good job and showed our quality and I am sure that they will show that in the next game as well. We will continue to fight.”
Ashdod coach Ran Ben Shimon explained his team’s struggle with getting players on the pitch.
“I don’t like to lose, but due to personnel issues I didn’t even know until the morning who would play. We played a number of guys who were injured, but I believe I saw a better team than Maccabi today.”
Elsewhere, Hapoel Beersheba downed Maccabi Petah Tikva 2-0 on a pair of late goals to take the points and keep its hopes alive for a European qualification spot.
Anthony Varene scored in the 74th minute and Arik Yanko was charged with an own-goal off a Marcelo Meli attempt to give Roni Levy’s squad the shutout conquest.
Prior to the game Josue and Sagiv Yehezkel were involved in an altercation and both players were suspended by the club for the match.
“We got into the Championship playoffs at the last moment and we have continued to improve,” Levi stated. “I’ve said it many times that there are no easy games and it was very important that we won, especially since Petah Tikva is a very strong opponent that has had a good season. I am happy for the players and for the fans who came out for the game.”