Beitar Jerusalem bested Maccabi Tel Aviv 3-1 as the hosts turned up the offense in the second half to take the 3-points and the win. After a goalless first half, the yellow-and-black broke the deadlock thanks to Mayron George’s 53rd minute strike while Jean Marcelin doubled the advantage less than a quarter hour later. Osher Davida pulled Maccabi to within a goal in the 84th minute but Yarin Levy scored deep into second half stoppage time to close out the victory.

Barak Itzhaki, Beitar’s head coach said, “I’ll tell you a little secret – I told the players before the game that I’m sure the media and football people in general say I’m a brave coach – but all the credit goes to the players because without them I wouldn’t have been brave. We played with strength. I felt like we were in the game and I knew that as it developed we would be there even more and more. We succeeded, certainly in the second half when the game was already open and players like Yarin Levy or Yarden Shua were waiting in these areas, it could have ended with a even bigger result.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach Zarko Lazec said after the game, “A big disappointment, but we don’t have time to be disappointed. We have to keep fighting. In the first half we had a lot of good situations, but we weren’t calm enough on the last pass. We missed a penalty and the momentum changed after that. We conceded after a mistake, but that’s part of football.”