Monday night saw round 33 of the Upper Playoff bracket conclude, with Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Beer Sheva playing a 1-1 draw in front of 27,063 in the game of the round at Bloomfield. Both teams have 71 points with three rounds remaining in the season, with Beer Sheva ahead of Maccabi only on goal difference.

Prior to the game, former hostages Omer Shem Tov, Arbel Yehud and Yair Horn, were honored by both sets of fans in an emotional ceremony. Maccabi Tel Aviv also paid tribute to Andreas Prohonenkovs and David Krako, two former players of the club who passed away this week. The hosts also recognized former player Dan Biton, who is now a key player for Beer Sheva.

It was Biton who opened the scoring in the 12th minute to the disappointment of the home fans, with a clean strike past Simon Sluga to give Beer Sheva a 1-0 lead. Maccabi responded in the 33rd minute when Roy Revivo passed the ball into the box and Weslley Patati tapped it past Niv Eliasi to level the ledger.

The teams went into the halftime break 1-1 and with limited opportunities for both teams there was no change to the score in the second half, as both teams left points on the pitch in a tight title race.

“From the moment when we started to rush to play fast, that’s exactly what Beer Sheva need,” Maccabi coach Žarko Lazetic said after the game. “They are very good in transition. Because of that, we started to lose the ball and we suffered the second half. We wanted to win, the players gave everything. I congratulated them for how they tried. Of course it could have been better, but it could also have been worse. We will keep playing our way and believing that we will be champions.”

“Mainly it’s a big game, it’s a big game, it’ll go to tackles and whoever wins the ball,” Beer Sheva coach Ran Kouzouk said of what he said to his players at half time. “I said that the game was fifty-fifty and whoever wins the fifty-fifty will win the game. It was an intense game – Maccabi got into momentum 10-15 minutes before the goal and then they scored. It wasn’t a good result, but it definitely wasn’t a bad result. We’ll take the draw and move on to the next game.”

“It was a missed opportunity,” Maccabi midfielder Gabi Kanichowsky summarized the feeling in the changeroom after the game. “We spoke about how the game was in their hands, with long balls and the pressure they put on us. It was also difficult with their physicalness. We’ve come back from being down, we need to work on this and gain a little more confidence, at this stage of the season we need to win games.”

“We know that it was going to be a decisive game, so I think both teams wanted to win the game, but also didn’t want to lose,” Beer Sheva defender Miguel Vitor summarized the game. “For most of the game we had control, we lost a bit of it before their goal for around 10-15 minutes, we lost some balls and they scored to make it 1-1. In the second half they only had one chance, but most of the time we controlled and had a better chance to score. We needed to show matureness in a tough game and good stadium. I think we need to be happy with the result.”

With three games to go this season, Beer Sheva and Maccabi sit in the top two spots on 71 points, Maccabi Haifa sits on 58 points, followed by Beitar Jerusalem on 53 points, Hapoel Haifa on 48 points and Maccabi Netanya on 44 points.

In round 34 action next week, Hapoel Haifa hosts Beitar Jerusalem (20:30 on Sunday night), Beer Sheva hosts Maccabi Haifa (20:30 on Monday night) and Maccabi Netanya hosts Maccabi Tel Aviv (20:30 on Monday night).