Hapoel Beer Sheva slipped by Hapoel Haifa 2-1 as Matan Baltaxa’s second half goal held up to keep the southern reds in first place. Zahi Ahmed gave Beer Sheva an early lead as he headed home a Dan Biton ball but Tamir Arbel drew the hosts even thanks to a penalty right after a reckless tackle by Miguel Vitor before the break as the sides headed into halftime tied at 1-1. Baltaxa put the visitors ahead for good when he put home a ball in the box after a Kings Kangwa corner kick to hand Ron Kozuk’s team the win and the 3-points.

“I will divide the game up into three parts,” Kozuk began. “We started great, we had a very good first half and played with patience and with our principles, but then came the tactical mistake that we talked about that cannot be made in a championship fight. It brought Hapoel Haifa back in terms of the result and momentum and the second half was terrible for us”

“Overall we were in the game the entire time and this was a very disappointing loss,” Haifa coach Roni Levy explained. “We could have gotten more out of the game, on the other hand the guys did give everything, they are committed, team-oriented and I am very proud of them even when they lose.”

Ashdod crushed Hapoel Hadera 4-1 as Muhammad Knaan scored a brace to help the port city side take the win and the 3-points while the visitors were officially relegated to the second division with the loss. Despite Ashdod controlling the pace of play from the outset of the contest, Jose Cortes gave Hadera a quick lead in the 7th minute, however, Eugene Ansah knotted the game up less than a minute later. Haim Silvas’s squad then grabbed the lead via a Knaan penalty after a handball in the box while the striker added his second goal of the game in the 63rd minute for a 3-1 advantage. Noam Muche bumped the lead up to 4-1 in second half injury time as the loss sent Hadera down the Leumit League.

“It’s hard to deal with the pressure, because every game is like a cup final,” Silvas said. “But it’s football and after a few minutes we began to enjoy the game. We improved our defensive game, we concede less and that helps us a lot because we have quality players in attack. My goal is to stay in the league, nothing would make me happier. We will be happy and celebrate a little, but tomorrow we will do what we need to recover and look at the next game against Sakhnin.”

“This is a difficult moment for me,” Hadera Head Coach Nimrod Kotika began. “That is true for the club and for the fans that we disappointed. It’s hard to talk at such moments and summarize, but Hapoel Hadera is a strong club. Bigger teams than us have been relegated and come back, I hope we can recover from this quickly and that the club will return to the Premier League as soon as possible. We have to be realistic, but we are athletes and we will try to win all of the games.”

Bnei Sakhnin defeated Maccabi Petach Tikva 2-1 to snatch the points and the win. Itay Ben Hamo gave Sakhnin a 1-0 lead just ahead of the break while Alexandre Ramalingom added a second goal in the 73rd minute for the hosts. Amir Altoury cut the lead a minute later but Petach Tikva couldn’t find the equalizer as Sakhnin went on to take the victory.

“We weren’t good enough in the offensive part of the pitch,” Petach Tikva bench boss Noam Shoham said. “At the end of the day, when the game is so tight, everything is one-on-one. We conceded two goals that were not really necessary, from places where you shouldn’t concede.

“What changed in Sakhnin?” Menachem Koretzky began. “The players understood the situation and made the adjustments. I’m glad they internalized it and connected to the style I outlined.”

Maccabi Bnei Reineh defeated Hapoel Jerusalem 2-1 to take the points and the win. After a goalless first half, Omri Altman opened the scoring by heading in the first goal of the game off a Saar Fadida pass to take the lead in the 47th minute while Nemanja Ljubisavljević doubled the advantage the minutes later to go up 2-0. Samba Diallo pulled one back in the 81st minute but thats as close as the capital city reds would get.

“You don’t understand how important this win was,” Reineh Head Coach Sharon Mimer began. “We went through a serious trauma in the State Cup semifinals but we proved here that with all the shortcomings we are made of something special. We came up against a team with a good momentum, so hats off to the players. This is a great season, Reineh wasn’t in the relegation zone for a single day, I’m happy and thank the team and the players for this fun season.”
“We came into this game with very low energy and we didn’t deserve to win. It happens,” Ziv Arie, Jerusalem’s coach said, “The players have been doing a good job for two months, but it didn’t go so well in this game.”

Ironi Tiberias blanked Kiryat Shemona 2-0 as Stanislav Bilenkyi scored a first half brace to hand the visitors the win and the points.

Tiberias Head Coach Eliran Hodada commented following the game, “I am very happy with the players’ readiness and that they really understood the meaning of the game. I think we started really well and managed to take a 2-0 lead by the 30th minute, so all the compliments to the players.”

Kiryat Shemona bench boss Shay Barda said, “I think the first half was poor due to a lack of commitment and we were very soft. These are things that didn’t characterize the team at the beginning of the year where we had three elements that worked, tactical discipline, commitment and will. Howvever, these three elements were not there in this game.”