Beitar Jerusalem and Hapoel Petach Tikva drew 2-2 in an entertaining and dramatic match at the capital city that saw the two sides split the points. Adi Yona found the back of the goal in the 25th minute as he headed home Timoti Muzi’s ball while five minutes later the same Yona took a Yarden Shua pass to go up 2-0. However, Beitar’s Dan Azaria was issued a red card in the 34th minute reducing the hosts to ten men. Just minutes later, Idan Vered scored a penalty to cut the lead to 2-1 and Hamza Shibli found the equalizer in the 88th minute as each team took a point for their efforts.

“We have a stumbling block here and I am very angry about it,” Beitar coach Yossi Abuksis said. “It can’t be that every time we concede a goal that the fans boo and curse me here at Teddy Stadium. It’s very upsetting and I know they have plenty of complaints about me which then doesn’t give the entire team some quiet.”

Ashdod slipped by Maccabi Bnei Reineh 1-0 as Shaked Hachmon headed home a 15th minute goal to snag the points for the port city squad.

“We lost our State Cup game last Friday and it was a tough time for all of us over the past three days,” Ashdod assistant coach Klemi Saban said. “I’m happy for the club with this win. There was a big battle on the pitch and the guys played great. I’m content that we were able to take the points and while we are still in the danger zone this was a good result for us.”

“I don’t think that this was a bad day for us,” Reineh coach Sharon Mimer said. “We came into a tough game against a team that is fighting for their lives in the league. The goal gave them confidence and they were able to control the game from there. We didn’t have enough quality in order to create chances.”

Bnei Sakhnin blanked Maccabi Netanya 1-0 on Dor Hugi’s 51st minute marker to take the win and the 3-points.

“This was a very important in for us,” Sakhnin coach Slobodan Drapic explained. “It’s been quite some time since we took 3-points and it was very important for us to win and settle down a bit. We have plenty to improve on and we are constantly looking at ourselves as we are building everything here from scratch.”

“Of course the result is disappointing,” Netanya coach Guy Tzarfati said. “Especially from the chances we had, but we also gave up a goal from a half chance. We should have scored at least two goals in this game, but now we have to get ready for our next game coming up on Saturday and we need to collect as many points as we can.”