Hapoel Beer Sheva defeated Maccabi Petach Tikva 5-2 as Niv Yehoshua scored a brace against his former club to help the southern reds to the win away from home at the Moshava Stadium ahead of their Europa League match against OFI Crete this coming Thursday. Yehoshua opened the scoring early on in the first half as the midfielder stole the ball and sent a long range scorcher into the back of the goal for a 1-0 lead. However, Liran Hazan and Guy Deznet scored fabulous strikes later on in the first half to give Ziv Arie’s squad a 2-1 advantage at halftime.

At the break, Ron Kozuk made four substitutions that turned the game around for his side as Adrian Ugarriza drew a penalty in the box that Igor Zlatanovic promptly slotted into the goal to draw the visitors even at 2-2 early on in the second half. From there it was all Ron Kozuk’s squad as Yehoshua scored his second marker of the match while Zahi Ahmed and Ugarriza both scored from in close to notch the victory.

Beer Sheva Head Coach Ran Kozuk spoke about the victory, “I think the crowd was incredible, I’m happy with the final result because they deserved a good performance. Walking over to the fans at halftime fills me with happiness. Their support makes a huge difference for us. I wasn’t happy that we created absolutely nothing and played with far too much ego. We lost every battle and Maccabi Petah Tikva took advantage of that. We were very soft, both in the middle of the pitch and out wide, which is why Maccabi Petah Tikva was able to create chances. We made the necessary corrections at halftime and did what we needed to do.”

Maccabi Petah Tikva head coach Ziv Arie discussed the loss, “I told the players at halftime that they weren’t playing to win; they were playing to earn compliments. We insisted on playing out from the back. We knew Beer Sheva would make changes and made four substitutions that pinned us back. At 3-1, we would be having a completely different conversation. We had a five-on-one opportunity and missed it. Because we weren’t smart enough, we got tired. The final score was bizarre and didn’t reflect what happened in the game.”

The Man of the Match, Niv Yehoshua, who starred in the match against his former team said, “I have a good relationship with everyone at Maccabi Petah Tikva. Sometimes you have days when everything comes together and I’m happy that happened for me in this game, even though this is a club that gave me so much and is the reason I’m where I am today. Of course, I’m happy that I scored a brace.”