In the Haifa Derby, Maccabi downed Hapoel 4-1 as Omer Atzily broke out of a slump in a big way with a hat-trick in the win. Before the game was 5 minutes old, Atzlily had already bagged a brace, scoring first from a Dia Saba cross and then added his second by heading in a Pierre Cornud ball for a 2-0 lead. Atzliy then played a give and go with Tjaron Chery who scored in the 56th minute while Liran Sardel finally got on the board a quarter hour later to break up the clean sheet.

However, the Greens didn’t was it long to bump the advantage back up to three goals when Saba once again played facilitator for Atzily as the winger scored his third marker of the game to take the victory.

“I was happy that we were able to play such attacking football especially after we were eliminated from the State Cup,” Maccabi coach Barak Bachar said. “We played very offensive minded football and I knew everyone would do their job. Even though we will win the regular season that means nothing as we have to be the champions in May.”

“Our goal at the start was to make it to the Championship Playoffs,” Hapoel bench boss Roni Levy began. “But the situation was that we would need to battle to make sure we wouldn’t be relegated. Perhaps I came into this job a too late and the squad wasn’t built well enough. I arrived after the club had won one game in ten and the dream of making it to the playoffs was just to difficult to accomplish.”

Omer Atzily spoke about the win, “This was really important after Hapoel Beer Sheva had own their game. It was crucial for us to come into this game and win in order to head into the Championship Playoffs in first place. It wasn’t an easy game and while it may have looked that way, we pressed like crazy and we scored on the first couple of opportunities.”