Beitar Jerusalem blanked Maccabi Petach Tikva 3-0 as Dor Micha scored a second half brace to help the yellow-and-black take the points and the win. Adi Yona found Myron George who gave Beitar the lead in the 15th minute while Yona again sent the ball to Micha who found the back of the goal in the second half to double the advantage while Micha’s 87th minute screamer sewed up the 3-0 victory.

“I along with the players believe in the way we are going about our business,” Beitar Jerusalem bench boss Barak Itzhaki said. “Despite not having taken points in our previous games we did play well as a top team and we just couldn’t score. We knew that in the end that the goals would come and I am happy that is what occurred in this game.”

“This is a huge disappointment,” Maccabi Petach Tikva coach Roz Kozuk said. “We come into games against high quality opponents and we make huge mistakes and we don’t do what we had spoken about and worked on.”

Hapoel Jerusalem downed Hapoel Petach Tikva 3-2 in a thriller that saw goals a plenty and a dramatic finish as the capital city reds took the 3-points and the win. After 45 minutes of back and forth play with a number of chances from both sides, Karem Zoabi gave Jerusalem a 1-0 lead just ahead of the break during first half injury time. It didn’t take the visitors long to find the equalizer as Raz Stein fed Fortune Bassey in the 57th minute for the tying goal but less than a minutes later Jelle Duin put the hosts back on top thanks to a terrific effort from Ofek Bitton.

After the aforementioned Bitton missed a penalty, Stein stunned Ziv Arie’s squqd with a 25 meter scorcher to draw Petach Tikva even once again in the 74th minute. Just minutes later Or Roisman put Jerusalem back on top 3-2 with a wonderful marker inside of the box, however, Benny Lam’s side didn’t give up and had a last gasp chance to take a point, but Stein’s spot kick deep into second half stoppage time went off of the bar as the hosts survived to take the victory.

“Sometimes you don’t have to say to much as this game was a perfect picture of our season to date,” Hapoel Jerusalem head coach Ziv Arie said. “We controlled the ball well and we were ready for Petach Tikva, we scored at the right time and then gave one up that happens 1/1000. That’s exactly are season. We are close to our goal and with 2-3 more points we will avoid relegation but we are in good shape.”

“I told the guys that we are a team that doesn’t deserve to be relegated,” Petach Tikva coach Benny Lam said. “We are a team that creates plenty of chances and we we able to tie the game up twice and we were able to comeback each time we went down, to me that’s a team that shouldn’t go down a league.”

Hapoel Beer Sheva slipped by Ashdod 1-0 thanks to Amir Ganah’s goal deep into forts half injury time to give the southern reds the 3-points and the win.

“I’m content with how we reacted in this game and we were better with the ball this week,” Beer Sheva head coach Elyaniv Barda explained. “Most of the time we were controlling the ball and we created many opportunities in the first half where we should have scored but it was important that we won and took the points.”

“It’s not comforting that we played well, especially in the second half,” Ashdod benched boss Eli Levi said. “I believe that we played good enough to take a point. Over the last two games we have really been coming together as a team and I believe that we will see this come to fruition in the relegation playoffs.”

Hapoel Hadera surprised Maccabi Netanya 3-1 as James Adeniyi bagged a brace to help Haim Silvas’s squad take the points and the win. Adeniyi sent a 16 meter strike into the back of the Netanya goal off a Godsway Donyoh ball in the 2nd minute while the two teamed up again 20 minutes ago with the latter scoring to give the visitors a 2-0 lead. Adeniyi then easily beat the diamond city side’s keeper Omer Niron off a Donyah assist in the 38th minute while Igor Zlatanovic broke up the clean sheet in the second half but his goal was too little too late to save Guy Tzarfati’s squad from defeat.

“We have a terrific record over the past couple of months,” Silvas said following the game. “We are playing with confidence that just keeps increasing as we showed what we can do in the first half. The second half wasn’t as good but that is the price we had to pay for the opening 45 minutes. It’s too bad we gave up a goal but I am very happy with how we played in the first half of this game.”

“It’s very disappointing,” Tzarfati said. “We took two steps back in this game after having taken a step forward. We just fell apart defensively and they were able to create chances very easily. I can’t accept this type of play and I will take a look to see why it occurred. Going into the relegation playoffs we will have to battle for every ball which is something that we didn’t do in this game.”

Bnei Sakhnin and Bnei Reineh played to a goalless draw as the two sides split the points and both will feature in the Championship playoffs.

“I am proud that my players have proven all season long that they are cut from a different cloth,” Reineh coach Sharon Mimer said. “We came into a tough stadium and we wanted to win but we also had a short squad for this game. We will continue on, relax a bit and ready for the playoffs.”

“This has been a very tough season,” Sakhnin coach Slobodan Drapic commented. “I remember how we didn’t pass the budget committee ahead of our first game, then there was the war and we have been playing with just 4 import players. The goal was not the playoffs, we just wanted to make it through and not go down a league. But slowly but surely we understood that we had a very good team here that could play and we found a specific system as we made it to the championship playoffs.”