Hapoel Beer Sheva dropped Ashdod 3-1 to continue their fine play of late as Elyaniv Barda’s team recorded yet another win and collected 3-points for their efforts. Jordan Botaka gave the hosts an early 1-0 lead but Yoni Stayonov quickly found the equalizer that as confirmed by the VAR (Virtual Assistant Referee) in the 20th minute. A red hot Rotem Hatuel gave the southern reds a 2-1 lead from in close in the 70th minute while as Antonio Sefer added the insurance goal roughly twenty minutes later to take the victory.”

“We have started to play much better over the past week,” Barda said. “We gave up a quick goal but then we were able to comeback and win at a very tough place to play. I believe that it was very important for the guys to win this game and show that they can continue their fine play of late.”

“It’s disappointing,” Ashdod coach Eli Levy said. “We started the game off well but there’s nothing we can do now except to keep going as we have yet another game midweek. We had some very good chances to score and when you don’t things become that much more difficult.”

Hapoel Jerusalem slipped by Hapoel Petach Tikva 2-1 to snatch the points and the victory on the road at the Moshava Stadium. OferTesselpepe’s squad had a rough start as Golan Beni was issued a red card for a reckless tackle in the 17th minute which allowed the Reds to take immediate advantage of the extra man with Cedric Don finding the back of the goal just two minutes later to take a 1-0 lead.

Karem Zoabi doubled the advantage deep into first half injury time while the hosts were able to pull back a goal via Ido David in the 83rd minute but that would be as close as Petach Tikva would get as Jerusalem wrapped up the win.

“This was a game that we should have won easily 3-0 or 4-0,” Jerusalem bench boss Ziv Arie said following the win. “This has been our story for the entire round of games that everything has been very difficult which was the case yet again in this match. We do have a plan and we need to stick to it.”

“We gave up some easy goals but we also have to remember that we were playing with only 10 men,” Petach Tikva coach OferTesselpepe said. “This is something that we have seen numerous times. You can’t play 80 minutes with just 10 players as we have a short squad sit is and we are missing some very important players.”

Maccabi Netanya crushed Hapoel Hadera 4-1 as new head coach Guy Tzarfati’s squad scored a pair of goals in each half to take the 3-points. After 40 goalless minutes, Philip Ipole accidentally headed Maxim Plakuschenko’s free kick into his own goal to give Netanya a 1-0 lead while Oz Bilu doubled the advantage just before the break. Plamen Galabov scored Netanya’s 3rd marker in the 51st minutes while Toni Gomes cut the lead to 3-1 from an attempt outside of the box, however, Naftali Balay wrapped up the win with a 90th minute header.

“This was a good result for an away game,” Tzarfati said following the contest. “I’m happy that we’ve been able to take 6 points now in the short time that I have been here. We saw the effort the guys put in and it’s not easy what they did. We had some very good minutes as well as some quality ones as well. The players can give even more in terms of technical ability as a team.”

“It’s very hard to get back into the game once you give up a pair of goals as we did,” Hadera coach Niso Avitan began. “We don’t have any time to be upset and we have to quickly look ahead because we already have another game coming up.”

Bnei Sakhin defeated Maccabi Bnei Reineh 1-0 thanks to Sahar Tagi’s 82nd minute goal to give Slobodan Drapic’s team the 3-points and the win.