Beitar Jerusalem and Ashdod played to an entertaining goalless draw at Teddy Stadium as the sides earned a point a piece for their efforts. The port city side controlled the pace of play throughout the first half and limited the hosts as Haim Silvas’s squad was able to cause issues for the yellow-and-black over the course of the opening 45 minutes.

The second half saw Barak Itzhaki’s team begin to take control as there was one way traffic towards the Ashdod goal with many chances by Omer Atzily coming from corner kicks as well as a brilliant free kick that keeper Karol Niemczycki made a terrific save on to secure the draw.

Ashdod Head Coach Haim Silvas spoke about the draw, “I think that we were able to create issues for Beitar and I’m very proud of the team. I wanted to win but I’m happy that we are playing much better together as a team. I’m a bit disappointed in the second half and Beitar had chances but all in all I’m very proud of how we performed in this game. I’m much more content with the performance than the result.”

Beitar Jerusalem bench boss Barak Itzhaki commented on the match, “We needed to play the game and ensure that it was continuing to move along as there was a lot of time wasting going on. The added time is up to the referee and I thought there should have been more, it’s up to the official. We only played 49 minutes in total and only 22 minutes of actual game time in the second half so it should have been more than just an added time of five minutes.”

Itzhaki continued, “We wanted to take the 3-points from this game and we couldn’t get into the flow of the game, the team wanted to win there’s no question about that. It’s too bad that we couldn’t leave with the 3-points but we couldn’t and we took the one point.”

Dor Micha reflected on the match, “We had a tough time and we really bow a chance to move up on the table. We weren’t able to create many chances and it’s disappointing that we couldn’t com through. We weren’t sharp enough on our final pass and after the national team break sometimes these things occur. We had a pair of wins at Teddy Stadium so far this season and we had a number last year as well, but we have to really take the crowd’s energy and use that to advantage especially after they came in droves.”