Hapoel Beer Sheva with just 9-men came back from a 1-0 deficit to defeat Maccabi Netanya 2-1. The southern reds lost Eliel Peretz and Miguel Vitor who were both set off in the first half due to reckless tackles to leave the visitors with just nine players which Maxim Plakushenko took full advantage as he scored from the penalty spot to give Netanya a 1-0 lead at the break. However, Matan Baltaxa found the equalizer off a corner kick in the 72nd minute and Shai Elias beat Omer Niron in the 88th minute to give Beer Sheva the shocking win.

Beer Sheva coach Ron Kozuk spoke about how his team as able to not only stay in the game but also find a way to come away with the win, “We talked about staying in the game, a foul or a corner will come along and we can score and that’s what happened. I saw that Netanya was moving us from side to side so I changed our formation up a bit. But with all due respect to the tactics, it was the players’ big heart and their game intelligence as well as the crowd who were amazing.”

“We made all of the possible mistakes,” Netanya bench boss Yossi Abuksis said. “For me it means that we didn’t take advantage of our chances in a 1-0 situation, both before and after halftime. I knew that they would try to comeback on set pieces and I told the players at halftime that we needed to think about how to score a second goal to finish off the game. We had some great situations against 11, 10 and 9 players but that’s football.”

Bnei Reineh blanked Maccabi Tel Aviv 1-0 to stun the yellow-and-blue yet again as Omri Altman’s 9th minute goal was the lone marker of the game to give Sharon Mimer’s side the 3-points and the win.

“We played against a monster of a team that plays at a high pace and we were in control the entire game,” Bnei Reineh bench boss Sharon Mimer began. “My players deserve praise, especially on defense while on offense we could have done more with our attacks. We proved that we are a good team and are having a good season and it doesn’t matter if we are in the championship playoffs or not. It’s a shame we messed up in our last two games as that could have put us in the playoffs because I think that’s where we deserve to be.”

“We are very disappointed with the result,” Maccabi Head Coach Zarko Lazetic said. “We started poorly, our attitude was not good, it’s not what we expected, especially after the last game. After we conceded the goal, everything was more difficult and while we created some good situations it wasn’t enough because Reineh is a tough team.”

Maccabi Haifa slipped by Maccabi Petach Tikva 1-0 thanks to Dia Saba’s 71st minute goal t hand the greens points.

“Every win is important, especially after two home games that we hadn’t,” Haifa coach Barak Bachar said. “We’re doing things right, but we are lacking sharpness and we then faded towards the end of the half. I’m glad we showed that we were in control at the end of the day.”

Maccabi Petach Tikva coach Tamir Luzon reflected on the game, “For the first twenty minutes we were in total control of Maccabi Haifa and as the game progressed, we felt more confident, dared to open it up and managed to embarrass Maccabi Haifa several times. But against a team like Haifa, when you don’t take advantage of such opportunities, you are also punished.

Ironi Tiberias slipped by Ashdod 2-1 as Ondrej Baco scored a first half brace to cancel out Mohammed Knaan’s 3rd minute strike to pick up the valuable 3-points and win.