Beitar Jerusalem and Ashdod played to an entertaining 1-1 draw as Ilay Hagag scored an early goal while Yarden Cohen scored the equaliser in the second half at the port city. Despite losing Emmanuel Agyei to a second yellow card and going down to ten-men, the yellow-and-black pressed to a go ahead goal but the hosts were able to hold on as the two sides split the points.

Beitar Jerusalem Head Coach Barak Itzhaki looked back at the match, “We weren’t in the game for the first thirty minuets of the game and I wasn’t happy about that. I’m content that we were able to score in the second half but we couldn’t score once they were down a man, sometimes the ball just doesn’t go in. We have to keep our heads up, look at the game that we played, analyze it and move on to the next game.”

Ashdod Head Coach Nir Bitton spoke about the draw, “We had a good game plan and we see bake to execute it very well in the first half. There were some mistakes but nothing major. The second half was different and we lost a man so we are halt to take a point out of this game.”

Yarden Cohen reflected on the draw, “We knew it was going to be a tough game and they were really fighting for their lives. In the second half we were able to stick to Barak Itzhaki’s game but the ball just wouldn’t go in. I’m happy that I was able to score but I would have been happier had we won, but we will continue on.”

Ashdod took control of the match from the get go with aggressive play and their efforts paid off almost immediately when Eugene Ansah’s attempt was parried by Beitar Jerusalem keeper Miguel Silva right to Ilay Hagag who scored from right inside of the box for a 1-0 lead in the 7th minute. However, Ansah had to be substituted off with an injury just five minutes later but the port city side still maintained the upper hand.

A shell shocked yellow-and-blue began to slowly get into the match as Yarden Shua started to pace the offense pushing Beitar forward as he fed Kalu in the box but his attempt missed the target while Shua’s chance was kick saved by Ashdod keeper Karol Niemczycki to keep his squad in front 1-0 at the break.

Beitar started to press with even more intensity as the second half got underway and in the 57th minute Barak Itzhaki inserted Adi Yona and Dor Hugi to freshen up the attack as the former’s first touch saw his blistering shot just miss to the right of the goal, however, his second touch helped the yellow-and-black draw even.

Yarden Shua sent a through ball to Yona who passed it back to an oncoming Yarden Cohen who sent a scorcher past Niemczycki to knot the score up at 1-1 in the 61st minute. Things went from bad to worse for Ashdod just minutes later when Emmanuel Agyei was issued his second yellow card and was sent off leaving the hosts with ten men for the balance of the match.

Despite being a man down, Stav Nachmani broke through and went in one-on-one with Silva but the Beitar keeper made the save to keep the score as is in the 68th minute. Hugi tried to stab the ball home on a couple of attempts, Brayan Carabali’s header was was saved by the Ashdod keeper at the last second while Kalu’s attempt in front goal went over the bar. Beitar kept pushing into injury time as Luka Gadrani’s ball deflected off of a defender but that’s as close as they would get as the contest ended in a 1-1 draw.