Hapoel Beer Sheva blanked Bnei Sakhnin 2-0 as the southern Reds won their 10th game in a row in rough conditions at Doha Stadium. As the first half neared its end, Mariano Barreira was issued a straight red card after yanking down Alexandru Paun to give Sakhnin a man to the good for the second half. However, in the 60th minute the hosts lost Stéphane Oméonga to a red card as well laving both sides with ten men for the final half hour of action. Helder Lopes scored a 90th minute penalty while Alon Turgeman added an insurance marker deep into sedan half injury time to sew up the victory.

“This was a very tough game on a hard pitch to play on,” Beer Sheva coach Elyaniv Barda said. “However, we knew that this would be the case from the start. We knew that if we didn’t win it would be as if we did nothing but everyone believed that we could and despite perhaps not playing our best we still knew how to take the points.”

“It’s disappointing as we played decently,” Sakhnin coach Slobodan Drapic said. “It’s too bad we couldn’t string together another win and fight for a spot in the championship playoffs. We are looking ahead and I always want to be optimistic.”

Hapoel Tel Aviv downed Ashdod 3-1 thanks to a two of second half goals to take the win and the 3-points. After a goalless first half, the Reds got to work as Mavis Tchibota took a Hisham Layout ball, turned and scored to give the hosts a 1-0 lead in the 60th minute. Less than a quarter hour later, Layous doubled the advantage by taking care of a loose ball in the box while just minutes later Alen Ozbolt added a third goal off a Dan Einbinder pass to go up 3-0. Tom Ben Zaken pulled back a late inputs time goal but that marker would be too little too late as Hapoel notched the win.

“I think we really controlled this game from the get go,” Hapoel Tel Aviv interim coach Saleem Tuama said. “Ashdod made it tough for us but I am happy that the guys came in with the right attitude like real men and I am content that we were able to get the win for the team and the fans.”

“We can’t be so soft,” Ashdod bench boss Eli Levi began. “We wanted to keep up our winning streak but it just didn’t work out. We will need to pick up points in some of our other games. We went a bit to backwards and gave Hapoel the chance to play. We have to really focus on our next game now against Hapoel Petach Tikva which is super important.”

Maccabi Petach Tikva slipped by Maccabi Netanya 1-0 as Idan Gorno headed home the lone goal of the match in the 86th minute to ice the win and pick up the 3-points.

“I have to take my hat off to the players,” Petach Tikva coach Ron Kozuk said. “They put in an incredible battle. We have to be smart and also understand how to play as per the condition of the pitch. Everyone who played in this game were terrific and to hold Netanya to basically no chances is phenomenal.”

“The condition of the pitch allow us to really play proper soccer,” Netanya coach Guy Tzarfati said. “We wanted to win and sometimes this game can be cruel. We looked better in the second half and we created chances but when you don’t score and give up a late goal it is what it is.”

Hapoel Haifa defeated Hapoel Petach Tikva 2-0 as the visitors scored a pair of goals in the second half to take the points. Guy Melamed opened the scoring in the 60th minute as the striker nodded in the first goal of the match while Bar Lin found the back of the goal almost a half hour later to pick up the points.

“This was a very important win,” Haifa coach Roni Levi began. “We showed a lot of character especially after last game where we were winning 4-0 and then we gave up 3 goals which could really hurt our confidence. We played well tactically and wrapped up the game in the second half.”

“We weren’t very good in the second half,” Petach Tikva bench boss Ofer Tesselpepe said. “Hapoel Haifa was the better team and won the game. We tried to make some substitutions to get back into the game but we conceded a late goal which wrapped up the game.”