Hapoel Beer Sheva blanked Hapoel Tel Aviv 2-0 as second half goals by substitutes Ofir Davidzada and Amir Ganach against a ten-man red side to move closer to capturing the league championship.

Loizos Loizou had the game’s first chance as Beer Sheva keeper Ofir Marciano made the save while at the other end Eliel Peretz’s attempt was caught by Assaf Tzur. Andrian Kraev was booked with his first yellow card due to a foul on Muhammad Abu Romi while soon thereafter when Kings Kangwa put a free kick in the box that saw Djibril Diop sky over the goal in the 23rd minute.

Kraev picked up his second yellow card and was sent off when he fouled Kangwa leaving Elyaniv Barda’s team with ten men in the 30th minute. However, it didn’t stop Stav Turiel from helping Xander Silva produce a prime opportunity in front of the goal that just came up short as the match headed into the break deadlocked at 0-0.

Both teams made substitutions to begin the second half as Javon East and Amir Ganach came on for Beer Sheva while El Yam Kancepolski entered for Hapoel Tel Aviv. Lucas Ventura and Kangwa each had chances from the area, at the other end Diop almost put in a Turiel cross into his own goal in the 58th minute. The two teams made more substitutions with Amit Lemkin, Shachar Piven and Daniel Dappa all entering the fray for the hosts while Miguel Vitor and Ofir Davdizada coming in for the visitors.

The Davidzada sub paid dividends almost immediately as the defensive back got the ball from Kangwa, came down the left side of the pitch and slotted the ball past a diving Tzur to give Beer Sheva a 1-0 lead in the 71st minute. The southern reds doubled the advantage ten minutes later when Ganach just got the ball over the goal line to go up 2-0 and polish off the victory.

“The win was most important for us and after Saturday night we may be close to winning the championship,” Hapoel Beer Sheva Head Coach Ron Kozuk said. “The red card helped us a bit but it wasn’t the deciding factor. The guys were a bit tied and that’s why I made some substitutions at halftime and soon thereafter. I understand the exhaustion and I have to tip my hat to the guys for their effort.”

“Some difficult things happened to us today,” Hapoel Tel Aviv Head Coach Elyaniv Barda said. “Playing 80 minutes with ten players, that was a very soft second yellow card and the first yellow too. If you came with the approach of not giving yellow cards, then it should be the same for both sides. The red card decided the game; today we didn’t know how to play well with ten men.”