Beitar Jerusalem and Hapoel Beer Sheva played to a barnburner of a 4-4 draw at Teddy Stadium in the capital city. Alon Turgeman opened the scoring in the 7th minute to give the Southern Reds a 1-0 lead but the yellow-and-black cam back in stunning fashion with there straight goals. Adi Yona stabbed home the ball in the 30th minute, Yarden Shua sent a 30 meter stunner into the back of the goal ten minuets later while right before the break Grigori Morozov scored was well as Beitar headed into halftime with a 3-1 lead.

However, Elyaniv Barda’s squad came out in the second half on a mission as Guy Badash scored a penalty and Rotem Hatuel drew the visitors even by the 58th minute. Yossi Abuksis’s team took the lead in the 80th minute when the ball went off of Eden Shamir and into the goal but Yoni Stoyanov drew Beer Sheva even five minutes later as the two teams split the points.

“I enjoyed the first half but not so much the second,” Beitar bench boss Yossi Abuksis said. We started to give out gifts in the second half and we were very tired and began to make mistakes. We deserved to win this game but we gave them a penalty that was a present and we then took the lead but quickly conceded again.”

“This was a crazy, crazy game,” Barda said. “We took the lead on a beautiful goal but then for no reason we started going backwards. We gave up three easy goals but that’s soccer. We are starting to look more and more like Hapoel Beer Sheva but now we have to rest up and take sure we are mentally prepared for our next game with the goal to win.”

Hapoel Tel Aviv crushed Hapoel Petach Tikva 4-1 as Omer Senior bagged a brace to help the Reds to the win and yet another 3-points as Borja Lema’s squad has been red hot of late. An active Mavis Tchibota sent a beautiful cross into the box that Senior headed home to give Hapoel Tel Aviv a 1-0 lead in the 13th minute as things went from bad to worse for Petach Tikva as they looked for an equalizer when Matan Gosha was sent off 20 minutes later to leave the visitors with just ten men for roughly an hour left of regulation time.

Tchibota found the back of the goal to double the advantage just ahead of the break, Senior added his second marker of the match thirty minutes later while Omri Altman gave Tel Aviv a 4-0 lead in the 74th minute. Itay Shechter pulled a goal back late in the game but that was as close as Petach Tikva would get as the reds snatched the points.

“I’m very happy as to how the players came into this game and performed,” Lema said after Hapoel Tel Aviv’s third win in a row. “We deserved the victory as we began the game well and after they received a red card we played even better. The best part of this game was to see how everyone contributed to the win and we are now looking ahead to Tuesday’s game against Hapoel Jerusalem.”

“This did not look very good,” Ofer Tesselpepe said. “The game can be split into two halves, before and after the red card. We had a tough time responding after we went down a man and it’s too bad because I think we started the game off well. It was too bad that we got that red card and it happened to such a responsible player which makes it so disappointing.”

Hapoel Haifa slipped by Maccabi Netanya 2-1 to continue their fine season to date and collect yet another 3-points. After a goalless first half, Hatem Abd Elhamed headed home the opening goal in the 81st minute to give the Carmel Reds a 1-0 lead while Guy Melamed added an insurance marker six minutes after. Liran Rotman scored during send half injury time but that would be as close as the diamond city side would get as Roni Levy’s side picked up the win.

“This was a very tough game against a strong opponent,” Haifa coach Roni Levy said. “There is a big gap between the result and their quality. They played very intensely and they have have some talented players. We knew that we would have to be very tactical and responsible in our play.”

“We gave up a goal on a set piece to begin the game,” Netanya’s new head coach Dan Roman said. “We tried to make a tactical change and then we conceded a second goal.The game could have gone either way and unfortunately it didn’t go in our favor. I am sure that we will begin to play quality soccer as we have some excellent players.”

Maccabi Bnei Reineh and Hapoel Jerusalem drew 1-1 as the Reds struggles continue despite take a point. Noam Malmud scored an own goal to give Reineh a 1-0 lead in the 62nd minute but Karem Zouabi’s late marker split the points.

“We played well and had plenty of chances it’s just too bad that we weren’t focussed on the goal an we lost two points,” Reineh coach Sharon Mimer said. “We deserved the win but now we just have to keep going on as we are not looking at the table and we are just concerned with collecting more and more points and enjoying quality play.”

“I don’t want to talk about luck,” Jerusalem coach Ziv Arie began. “We have to focus on what we can do better. We were dangerous but we conceded a goal which set the guys off in shock, but we were able to get back into the game. The point was important for us and we scored late to earn it.”

Bnei Sakhnin blanked Ashdod 1-0 as Maroun Gantus scored the lone goal of the match to give the Galilee side teh 3-point and the win.

“We came into this game to make sure that we played properly which we did and one of our goals was to not concede,” Sakhnin coach Slobodan Drapic said. “I’m really happy that we did not give up a goal and this was a big test for our very young team. There are times when you need how to get a 1-0 result and move on.”

“I didn’t feel that we were there in this game,” Ashdod coach Eli Levy said. “We weren’t there with how we approached the game and we didn’t have the desire as well. I am very disappointed. The team needs to come and work hard, we have some skill but if we come in and aren’t aggressive we won’t have a chance.”