Maccabi Haifa dismantled Maccabi Tel Aviv 4-1 as the Greens scored three late goals to take the victory. After a number of injuries littered the first half of play with no less than three players having to be substituted off the field of play, Michael Ohana scored off a Navot Ratner ball just ahead of the break to give Haifa a 1-0 lead. However, with the yellow-and-blue pressing, Sagiv Yehezkel evened the match up at 1-1 from inside the box in the 52nd minute. Both squads made wholesale changes as the second half wore on with the two head coaches trying to find the winning formula in order to take the 3-points.

That side would eventually be Haifa as Pierre Cornud sent a cross into the box and right to an oncoming Guy Melamed who stabbed the ball into Ofek Melika’s goal to give the hosts a 2-1 lead in the 79th minute. Less than two minutes later Kenji Gorre came in on the left flank and sent a scorcher into the corner of the goal to add an insurance marker while Niv Gabbai polished off the victory with his first strike in the 88th minute to wrap up the game.

Haifa Head Coach Barak Bachar said after the match, “It’s a happy day for the fans who have suffered a lot over the past two years. I know how important this game was for them. I told the players that the crowd wants consistency and extra effort. I’m glad we delivered that in a big way, in fact, we should have been leading 4–0 by halftime.”

Maccabi bench boss Žarko Lazetić shared his thoughts, “We felt that we weren’t there in the first half, that we were soft. We lacked intensity and that was the problem. In the second half we improved, controlled the game, created chances and felt we had momentum, but then we lost. When you start the game without energy and look like that, football punishes you.”