Beitar Jerusalem overwhelmed Hapoel Haifa 5-0 as five different goal scorers found the back of the goal as the yellow-and-black punched their ticket to the Toto Cup final where they will face Hapoel Tel Aviv for the first title of the season.

Beitar pressed from the get go and their efforts paid off when Johnbosco Kalu slotted home a Timoti Muzie ball in the 28th minute and Omer Atzily curled in a stunner of a goal two minutes later to give the hosts a 2-0 lead at the break.

The second half began just as the first half ended with another tremendous marker from Beitar as Atzily sent a cheeky back heel to Yarin Levy at the top of the box who took the ball off of his head and then unleashed a scorcher that cleanly beat Carmel red keeper Niv Antman for a 3-0 lead in the 48th minute. Next up it was ex-Haifa striker Dor Hugi as he made his way towards the area and scored a screamer against his former team while youngster Ziv Ben Shimol put away a penalty kick to give Beitar a 5-0 lead as they cruised to the victory.

“There were some things we did well and some things that we can still improve on,” Beitar Jerusalem Head Coach Barak Itzhaki began. “There is never a perfect game, but we will continue on and ready for the league. We had a ton of fans here and I’m happy that we were able to give them something to cheer about. We have worked hard in the preseason and each time we have played we are continuing to game confidence but we gave to keep our feet on the ground.”

Itzhaki also spoke about how crucial it was to have five different players score, “It’s very good and it’s important that we have so many guys that can score. It gives so much confidence to the players and there were some who made their debuts here at Teddy Stadium which was also an expedience in itself to feel the crowd and the fans.”

Hapoel Haifa Head Coach Gal Arel spoke about the game from his viewpoint, “The first twenty minutes we had some chances but once Jerusalem scored and the fans really got into the game at Teddy Stadium and Beitar got into a rhythm that just couldn’t be stopped. This was still a preseason game and although it was the Toto Cup semifinal it was a good tuneup for the regular season.”

Beitar Jerusalem’s acting Captain Gil Cohen reflected on the game, “Hats off to the guys. We saw what we have been doing in practice and we put it into play in this game. We have to continue as to how we played here in the league which begins this weekend. The European games definitely helped us in our preparation for the season and we will be ready when we play. The fans gave us a real good push and they allowed us to play our game but we will have to do without them next week.”