Beitar Jerusalem got by Maccabi Netanya 2-0 with 10-men for the majority of the game as the yellow-and-black snatched the 3-points. Myron George gave Beitar a 1-0 lead in the 30th minute but just four minutes later Grigori Morozov was issued back-to-back yellow cards first on a reckless tackle on Maor Levi and then for dissent to the referee leaving Barak Itzhaki’s side with just 10 players for close to an hour of game time. However, Beitar was able to hang on and then added an insurance marker via Timoti Muzi in second half injury time to wrap up the win.

“We got ourselves into a difficult situation,” Itzhaki began following the win. “We didn’t start well and while we controlled the pace of play, the red card disrupted our plans. I did see in this game that we have a solid group of players here and we saw the energy from each of one them. During the game I had the feeling that we would not concede a goal and when I brought in some of our faster players I knew that we would be able to expose our opponent.”

“We were better when we were playing 11-on-11, in fact we dominated,” Netanya bench boss Marko Balbul said. “We were able to get ourselves into some quality situations and Beitar were not even in the game. But then to give up a goal from nothing, well that’s not how you can win. After the red card we didn’t get a shot on target and every one of our attempts were high and over the bar which was very disappointing.“