Beitar Jerusalem slipped by Ashdod 3-2 as Jean Marcelin scored deep into second half injury time to snatch the 3-points. Dor Micha gave the yellow-and-black a 1-0 lead when he slotted home Yarden Shua’s through ball but Ilay Tamam drew even just three minutes later when he long ball glanced off of Gil Cohen and redirected into the Beitar net. The visitors retook the lead in the 26th minute when Mohammad Knaan tried to steal the ball but accidently put it behind his own keeper but Roy Levy scored just before the break to head into halftime all knotted up at 2-2. As the game looked to be heading for a split of the points, Marcelin took advantage of a mix-up in the host’s box and out the ball into the right corner of the goal to hand Barak Itzhaki’s team the win.

“It was a roller coaster of a game and I knew that is was going to be right from the start,” Itzhaki said after the game. “At halftime I told the players that no matter how, this game has to be won. Marcelin has been going through a difficult time as a foreigner who is not in his own country but I am very, very happy with his play and happy for him. I hope this will give him a boost forward.”

“The loss is very painful, we deserved a victory,” Ashdod assistant coach Klemi Saban said. “We had a good game and the crowd enjoyed it too, but we didn’t deserve to lose. We should have scored at the end of the game and we need to cheer the players up, because next round we have a very important game. We lacked a little bit of luck, but now we are looking ahead.”

Hapoel Beer Sheva thumped Kiryat Shemona 5-1 as the southerners grabbed a 4-0 lead by halftime and never looked back to take the win and the 3-points. Dan Biton slammed home a Paul Garita ball in the 5th minute for 1 -0 lead while Helder Lopes headed home a Kings Kangwa pass to double the advantage 25 minutes later. Lopes then returned the favor as Kangwa found the back of the goal in the 39th minute and then right before the break Garita slotted an Eliel Peretz though ball for a 4-0 advantage at halftime. Christian Martinez pulled a goal back via penalty in the 76th minute after Niv Eliasi was given a red card for handling the ball outside of the box, but no matter as Alon Turgeman finished off the masterpiece with a marker right before second half injury time to wrap up the game.

“We were unstoppable,” Beer Sheva bench boss Ron Kozuk began. “The guys came into the game committed and understood what needed to be done. The players have a lot of ambition and this was an excellent performance by everyone. I want to see what our ceiling is, we want to constantly improve and move forward. If we are challenged down the road hopefully we will know how to deal with it.”

“We played a good team, we will leave aside all the excuses for other games,” Kiryat Shemona Head Coach Shay Barda said. “This game was not supposed to look like it did. There are thoughts as to how we can make improvement and at the end of the day we have had a good run up until the match.”

Hapoel Haifa blanked Hapoel Hadera 3-0 as striker Guy Melamed scored a brace to help the Carmel Reds take the win and the 3-points.

Melamed opened the scoring with a perfectly placed free kick in the 15th minute and doubled the advantage in the second half as he pounced on a rebound to pick up his second goal of the game. Yonatan Ferber added the third strike in the 76th minute from outside of the box to close out the victory.

“I think that we have come back from the break playing very well,” Haifa Head Coach Roni Levy said. “Even if it’s not reflected in the results, we deserved more against Beitar Jerusalem and Maccabi Tel Aviv and we did not do what was needed to win. But our level of play is improving and everyone is working hard here which is a trend that we want to continue. We need to enjoy the victory, but continue to work hard.”

“We had a difficult game,” Hadera coach Asaf Nimni said. “It’s not ideal to start the second round like this, but that is the situation. We went through a pretty tough series of games and stretched the guys to the limit and we are continuing forward in our survival journey. I definitely see development in the players as they are sticking to our principles, to the identity that I’m trying to build here.”

Maccabi Petach Tikva and Bnei Sakhin played to a 1-1 draw and split the points at the Moshava Stadium. Kevin Soni was issued a red card due to a reckless foul in the 27th minute leaving the hosts with 10-men but Tamir Luzon’s squad grabbed a 1-0 lead via Matthew Cudjoe in the 72nd minute. However, Renato Gojkovic scored in the 86th minute to draw even as each team earned a point for their efforts.

Maccabi Netanya downed Maccabi Bnei Reineh 2-0 as Yuval Sadeh scored in the first half while Loai Halaf found the back of the goal in the second to take the points and the win.