Hapoel Beer Sheva got by Hapoel Hadera 2-1 as the southern reds mounted a second half comeback to take the 3-points and the win. Just as the match was headed into the break goalless, Godsway Donio took advantage of a Guy Mizrachi miscue to send the visitors on a counter that Duvan Jean Marc Diby polished off to give Hadera a shock 1-0 lead at halftime. However, Eliel Peretz nodded home the equalizer in the 51st minute while Paul Garita scored from in close twenty minutes later to send the Beer Sheva faithful into ecstasy as their squad wrapped up the victory and took the points.

“We knew before the game that Hadera has one weapon that they do extremely well which is their counter attacks in transition attacks,” Beer Sheva head coach Ron Kozuk said. “We spoke a lot about how we would stop them from scoring this exact way and after we lost the ball on their first attack we conceded a goal that put us in a difficult situation. But being able to come back makes me very proud of the players and the way we reacted at halftime I had no doubt that we would win this game.”

“We knew that we were coming into a difficult game as Beer Sheva has a squad with tremendous quality,” Haedra bench boss Haim Silvas said. “We knew that this was going to be a high intensity game especially after their very good performance against Maccabi Tel Aviv despite the defeat. We had to counter as we did at the end of the first half which worked quite well as we kept to our game plan. But in the second half they scored an early goal after not having had many chances and that gave them plenty of energy and we faded.”

Maccabi Netanya blanked Kiryat Shemona 2-0 to pick up their first win and points of the season. Karam Jaber fed Bar Cohen in the box as the midfielder sored on his second chance in the box for a 1-0 lead while Itamar Shviro scored into the far corner in the 64th minute to double the advantage and take the win.

“These are three very important points,” Netanya coach Marko Babul began. “We scored beautiful goals, we got into quality situations and we changed our momentum after the first few games as we will have to create continuity and come into the next game with the same approach. In the second half we came very close to scoring a number of goals and we are working very hard on our finishing. There were many good things in this game as we created pressure but we will need to be more decisive on our final pass in order to score.”

“We made quite a few mistakes after conceding the first goal,” Kiryat Shemona head coach Shay Barda said. “These are errors that should not happen at these levels. We will learn from this and make the appropriate corrections. I don’t think the first goal was the fault of our defense. There were a number of moments when we needed to hold onto the ball and move forward. Quality won today and we deserved to lose.”

Ironi Tiberias may have stunned Bnei Sakhnin 1-0 as a Fares Abu Akel second half strike gave the newly promoted side the 3-points and the win, but the most stirring moment came when the Home Front Command ordered the fans to leave near the end of the match as the clock came close to 90 minutes due to the threats from Hezbollah.

Tiberias coach Eliran Hodeda spoke about the security situation, “Before talking about the match itself, I first want to send my well wishes of peace and security to all of our soldiers and citizens. We didn’t understand what was going on in the final minutes with the crowd leaving, but this is our reality in the State of Israel. This was a big win for a club like Tiberias and what was important was the change in attitude from last week as my players came into this game with a completely different attitude and played a game with a lot of character. I don’t remember a single attempt by Sakhnin on our goal. I think the victory was justified and in the end we could have made it easier, but who are we to complain about three points in the league? We will take a day or two off to relax, both from the situation and from the game and prepare for the match against Maccabi Tel Aviv.”

“This is our reality in Israel. Let’s hope it will be quiet,” Sakhnin bench boss Sloboan Drapic began. “There was no real game play at all and it was one of the weakest games we’ve had. We tried to create substitutions and we didn’t succeed. We fell asleep and we weren’t in the game. We need to be better. We are waiting to bring in another player who is supposed to come, but if there is no peace here and there is war, then no one will come.”

Maccabi Bnei Reineh slipped by Hapoel Jerusalem 1-0 as Muhamed Shaker scored the lone goal of the match when he put home a Kayes Ganem steal to take the points.

“We aren’t looking at the table and we are just accumulating as we are enjoying the situation that we are in,” Bnei Reineh head coach Sharon Mimer said. “We lacked offensively in this game as Jerusalem shut us down well but I’m also proud of our defense. We have a very healthy system that gives us peace of mind to work and when you come to have fun, only good things will come out of it.”

Maccabi Petach Tikva and Hapoel Haifa played to a goalless draw as the two sides split the points at the Moshava Stadium.

“Each match is different,” Haifa bench boss Roni Levy began. “We knew we were coming into the contest against an opponent who is coming in with good momentum at their home stadium with one of the best midfields in the country, very high quality. We were not in the game offensively, defensively yes as we fought and showed character which is not always fun when there are no goals but at least we battled.”

“We stepped up today, we managed to get to the last third of the pitch better than our other games but we are still lacking in finishing but we will improve that aspect and look ahead to our next match,” Petach Tikva coach Dan Roman said.