Hapoel Beer Sheva downed Bnei Sakhnin 3-1 as Eliel Peretz had a hand in all of the goals as he forced the opening strike own goal, then scored one as well and added an assist to help the southern reds to the win. The hosts came out on fire as Peretz’s chance in front of the goal went off of Sakhnin defender Karlo Brucic for an early 1-0 lead which Dan Bitton doubled in the 15th minute when he scored off of a terrific passing play. Jubayer Bushnak pulled a goal back less than five minutes later but Peretz headed home the ball in first half injury time to give Beer Sheva a two goal lead that they held onto for the second half as they took the win.

Beer Sheva bench boss Ran Kozuk said, “I’m happy with the result and also with the chances that we created, but not only the offensive game is important. There were things in the defensive game that we didn’t do well against Hapoel Jerusalem and we didn’t do in this game. If we want to be where we want to be, we have to understand that, because you can’t always rely on luck.”

Bnei Sakhnin Head Coach Sharon Mimer added, “In the first half, if we had a little more quality up front, we could have surprised but we ended up conceding goals that brought our spirits down a bit. We had chances and we didn’t let the game get away from us. We’re still building and putting the team together, but all in all I am very pleased with what I saw.”

Hapoel Haifa and Maccabi Haifa played to a 1-1 draw in the Derby hosted by the Carmel reds as the two sides spoke the points at Sammy Ofer Stadium. The Greens opened the scoring when Trivante Stewart slotted home Suf Podgoreanu’s smart pass in the box for a 1-0 lead in the 14th minute. As halftime approached, Haifa bench boss Gal Arel made a double substitution and the move paid off as Roie Zikri unleashed a screamer of a strike into the top right hand corner of the net to knot score up but both squads couldn’t do much else for the balance of the match to earn a point a piece.

Hapoel Haifa Head Coach Gal Arel commented on the match, “This was a game full of emotions ad I have rot credit the guys. This was a close and well played game where we missed 3 chances from the area. We didn’t start well, I felt that the team was losing confidence. Not the game plan I wanted and I had to react. It’s never nice to be substituted in the 30th minute, but I’m happy that the players that I brought in were able to change up the game.”

Maccabi Haifa Head Coach Diego Flores also spoke about the draw, “We could have won the game and just didn’t do it. There was a moment when we could have scored the second goal and instead they equalized and came back into the game. We had the momentum to win and just couldn’t do it. That’s football. I think we had a good first half, but the second half wasn’t good and we didn’t play the football we want to play.”