Hapoel Beer Sheva blanked Hapoel Petach Tikva 2-0 with a pair of second half goals to take the home win. After a goalless first half, Antonio Sefer scored a left footed beauty while Alon Turgeman added the insurance marker off a Sefer assist to close out the victory.

“We made our lives a bit difficult,” Beer Sheva coach Elyaniv Barda began. “We didn’t play intelligently, certainly in the first half. There were too many players who were able to get to the ball instead of us making it difficult for our opponent. The second half was better and while we didn’t have a great first round of games we want to now make back those points that we lost in the second.”

“I am proud of the players who gave the maximum,” Ofer Tesselpepe said. “We came into the game with the goal to win and take points and unfortunately that is not what occurred. We want to strengthen the squad just like the rest of the league and I hope that will be the case.”

Maccabi Netanya slipped by Hapoel Jerusalem 2-1 in an entertaining game that saw the diamond city squad snatch the points. Idan Dahan gave the reds an early 1-0 lead but Maxim Plakushenko’s 22 meter free kick goal in the 35th minute knotted the game up at 1-1. With both sides looking to take the lead, Liran Rotman nodded home the winner midway through the second half to hand the win to Netanya.

“A lot of times we talk about who is missing but I like to discuss which players are here and who came on for platers who had been suspended and did a wonderful job for us,” Netanya coach Guy Tzarfati said. “Our substitutes also did a great job and during such a busy time we need them to come off the bench and do just that. This shows that we are a healthy team and that is what I want to see from my squad.”

“We began the match well according to our game plan,” Jerusalem coach Ziv Arie commented. “We scored a quack goal just as we wanted to but then the rest of the first half was just awful as were soft and we kept giving up the ball. The second half was much better and we controlled the ball well but one quality possession from Netanya decided the game.

Hapoel Haifa got by Hapoel Hadera 2-0 as the hosts scored a goal in each half to notch the win and take the 3-points. Noam Ben Harush scored just ahead of the break to give Roni Levy’s squad a 1-0 lead while Yinon Eliyahu pounced all over a second half injury time rebound to double the advantage and seal up the victory.

“Despite the win, I want to recognize the loss of one of the great coaches of our generation in Dror Kashtan who just passed away,” Levy began. “We hosted injured soldiers here at the game and I’m happy that we are able to give them a reason to smile. These are busy days with a certain level of exhaustion which is tough to deal with., but we were serious as to how we cane into this match.”

“Every loss in painful,” Hadera coach Niso Avitan said. “But we did fall to a very good high quality team that is better than us. We came close in the second half but we also knew ghat we were in the midst of some very tough game. We need to take points like we did in the first round of games.”