Hapoel Beer Sheva downed Hapoel Tel Aviv 3-2 in a thriller that saw the visiting southern reds score a trio of second half goals at Bloomfield Stadium. Kayes Ganem scored from inside the box after a stellar individual effort to give Tel Aviv a 1-0 lead in the 23rd minute. Astrit Selmani found the equalizer via a Dor Micha assist in the 60th minute but El Yam Kancepolsky sent a scorcher into the Beer Sheva got, a minute later as Kobi Refuah’s team retook the lead 2-1.

However, in the 66th minute Magomed Suleymanov took care of a rebound in the box to draw Elyaniv Barda’s side even and then Eugene Ansah unleashed a stunner of a ball from just outside of the area to give Beet Sheva the lead for good and the 3-points.

“I’m super happy because this was a very important win,” Barda said following the game. “This was our sixth game in two weeks and that’s no small task. We came into an away game after two poor results and then we went down by a goal twice, but we never gave up and showed plenty of character. They deserve a lot of credit.”

“We are very disappointed,” a dejected Refuah lamented. “Beer Sheva is an excellent, quality team that won and saw their winning goal scored by Eugene Ansah who ran half a field to score. We had many ups and downs and we gave up too many easy goals especially at home. We had this game in our hands.”

Kiryat Shemona and Bnei Reineh drew 1-1 as the the visitors earned their first point of the campaign after bringing in veteran coach Sharon Mimer to take over for Adham Hadiya. Muhamed Shaker gave Kiryat Shemona a quick lead in the 4th minute but veteran marksman Shlomi Azulay found the back of the goal in the 30th minute to draw even and eventually split the points.

“We played a good game, but we all have to credit the former coach who put quality work in,” Mimer said. “We came into a tough game against a strong team and we played well with plenty of chances on a very difficult pitch that many clubs have problems playing on.”

“We started the game off well, scored a goal and had chances,” Kiryat Shemona coach Menachem Koretzky commented. “But we made some critical mistakes and they were able to get back into the game with gift after gift which was just too much in this top league.”