Beitar Jerusalem cruised past Maccabi Haifa 3-0 as three different goal scorers, Yarden Shua, Brayan Carabali and Dor Micha found the back of the net as the yellow-and-black dominated the greens in a one-sided affair at Teddy Stadium. With the victory, Barak Itzhaki’s squad remains two points off the top of the table leaders Hapoel Beer Sheva who Beitar will face on Saturday night at Turner Stadium in the southern capital.

Beitar Jerusalem pushed forward early on as Gonzalez and Yarden Shua looked for opportunities while at the other end Kenji Gorre’s chance went wide left of the goal. As the match started to settle down, Ziv Ben Shimol raced towards the goal but was tripped up in the box by Abdoulaye Seck handing the yellow-and-black a penalty that the captain Yarden Shua slotted home for a 1-0 lead in the 21st minute.

Omer Atzily’s chance from in close was just pawed to safety by Georgiy Yermakov, while Cedric Don’s attempt was saved by Miguel Silva, Gonzalez’s ball went off the right side of the net while Johnbosco Kalu’s shot went wide left of the goal as the pace of play picked up. Don’s long chance just missed the target as Haifa got close to evening up the score while at the other end, Brayan Carabali’s scorcher went off Jelle Bataille in the box while Atzily’s follow-up also missed the mark as the match went into the break with Beitar ahead 1-0.

Atzily’s chance just went by the right post, Gonzalez’s long attempt was saved by Yermakov as Beitar kept pressing to double the advantage. Haifa Head Coach Barak Bachar made a triple substitution to freshen up the attack while Beitar bench boss Barak Itzhaki countered with a pair of new players as well.

The yellow-and-black kept pushing and were rewarded when Carabali headed home Yarden Shua’s corner kick for a 2-0 lead in the 71st minute. As the match heads into injury time Beitar searched for yet another goal and they found it when Dor Micha took care of a Ben Shimol through ball to close out the 3-0 win setting up a big time showdown next week at Hapoel Beer Sheva.

Beitar Head Coach discussed the win, “We’ve gotten used to the amazing atmosphere that our fans bring to the game every week. We felt the stadium buzzing, especially for a high-profile match. I’m happy we made the game comfortable for ourselves and we deservedly won. We have a squad where every single player can come in at at time and do the job and make the difference. From the first minute we felt very comfortable with the ball and every one played with confidence and we were able to do what we needed to do in order to take the win.”

Haifa bench boss Barak Bachar spoke about the defeat, “I don’t think that we are out of the race for the fourth spot and Europe but we shouldn’t fall apart at the end of the game as we did in this one. There are no excuses, this was a very important match. We prepared well, but at the end of the day we had issues on things like penalties and cheap corners. Beitar, here at home with their crowd makes it very difficult to come back from a situation like that.”

Yarden Shua reflected on the win, “We are going in the right direction and we are going to go all the way as far as we can. I have a lot of confidence in the staff and players who all really support me. We know the opportunity we have and we are big boys here, we can win against Hapoel Beer Sheva.”

Maccabi defeated Hapoel 1-0 in the Tel Aviv Derby as the yellow-and-blue captain Dor Peretz scored the losing goal of the match in the 21st minute from the top of the box to hand head coach Ronny Deila his first victory over the red city rivals.

“We were better in the first half and we played a bit to the sides,” Deila began after the win. “In the second half the ball was with them and we defended more. In a derby it’s important to get points, and great credit to the players who did that. We were very disappointed with the loss to Beer Sheva but we showed character and turned things around. We need to get used to winning, there are many games and we need to achieve good results.”

“I’m leaving here very disappointed because I think we started in some kind of shock,” Hapoel Tel Aviv Head Coach Elyaniv Barda said. “We didn’t understand what Maccabi were doing and we didn’t react properly. After we conceded, we took control of the game and created good chances to win. But that’s football and the better team doesn’t always win.”

Kiryat Shemona downed Hapoel Jerusalem 3-1 as Adrian Ugarriza scored a brace to help the northerners to three second half unanswered goals as Shay Barda’s team picked up the come back win and the 3-points. After a goalless first half, Aweka Ashata opened the scoring off a free kick in the 55th minute, however, Ugarriza scored his first of the game from inside of the box minutes later to even up the game at 1-1. Yair Mordechai gave Kiryat Shemona the lead as he sent a gorgeous curler into the back of the goal in the 80th minute while Ugazrriza scored his second goal just two minutes later to close out the 3-1 win.

“I think we were in the game the entire time,” Barda said following the victory. “The first half was tense and then we made a mistake on the goal. We knew how to recover quickly, credit to them and to us. I’m especially happy that all three goals were real football goals, exceptional ones.”

Jerusalem head coach Ziv Arie summed up the defeat, “How did we lose this game? Good question. It happens to us far too often. It wasn’t a great game, neither we nor they created many chances. We scored from a set piece, which is fine. The game was in our hands, we made one mistake and unfortunately we fell apart.”