Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-2 Hapoel Haifa

The visiting Haifa squad shocked table leaders Maccabi Tel Aviv to take a surprise 2-0 lead in front of Maccabi owner Mitch Goldhar & footballing legend Johan Cryuff at the Netanya Stadium in a “Home” radius match. Amir Nussbaum scored for Haifa to give them a 1-0 lead into halftime and Zarko Korac added the team’s second but Eran Zahavi pumped in two quick goals in the 68th & 73rd minutes to bring Maccabi even and split the points. The draw leaves Hapoel Beer Sheva only 4 points from the top spot.

Maccabi Haifa 3-1 Hapoel Tel Aviv

Haifa won a hotly contested match over Hapoel Tel Aviv at Kiryat Eliezer with European implications involved as both clubs are fighting for a spot in the Europa League for 2014-15. Hungarian International Tamas Priskin scored in his first start for Haifa and showed terrific touches throughout the match. Alon Turgeman added the 2nd strike for Haifa, but Lucas Pacheco AKA Sasha scored his 1st of the season to bring the Reds to within one. But Shoval Gozlan had the last word and sent the Green Apes home with a 3-1 win.

Hapoel Ramat HaSharon 0-4 Hapoel Beer Sheva

The Hapeol Beer Sheva train continued it’s ride as they easily dispatched RHS at Grundman Stadium 4-0. Led by Maor Bozaglo with a brace and an assist, Tomer Suissa capped off the scoring and Dutchman Glynor Plet scored as well to help HBS keep pace with Maccabi Tel Aviv. After no scoring in the first half Maor Bozaglo opened up the second half with a beautiful free kick goal from 20m out. After that the RHS defense collapsed as Bozaglo completed his brace on a beauty of a passing play with captain Elyaniv Barda and Bozaglo picked up an assist with Plet’s goal. The traveling HBS fans were a bunch of happy campers as the club played one of their best halves of the season.

Kiryat Shemona 1-0 Beitar Jerusalem

Another paltry offensive display by Beitar Jerusalem saw the home side, Kiryat Shemona pick up the win at home and send Beitar packing empty handed back to Israel’s Capitol. David Manga scored the only goal in the 2nd half to give KS coach Barak Bechar another 3 points as they stay in contention for a European spot. Beitar never had any real chances on keeper Guy Haimov and have now only scored a non-penalty kick goal once in the past 5 matches.

Bnei Sakhnin 0-2 Maccabi Petach Tikva

Pedro Galvan become the highest scoring foreign player in Israel with his 8th minute free kick goal for Maccabi Petach Tikva that gave them the lead for good. Finland born Erfan Zeneli scored the insurance marker as Bnei Sakhnin and coach Marko Balbul have now lost three straight matches.

Ashdod 1-2 Hapoel Raanana

Yogev Lerman played hero for Raanana as he scored in the 93rd minute to give his club their first victory in 12 games as Ashdod lost at home for the first time this season. Antonio Nwakame scored in the 18th minute for Raanana after a brutal defensive mistake by home side Ashdod and the visitors could have made in 2-0 but Asi Baldot missed a penalty in the first half. Roie Bekel brought Ashdod even at the 60th minute but a last second scrum in the box gave Raanana the win.

Bnei Yehuda 1-0 Hapoel Akko

Bnei Yehuda earned 3 valuable points defeating visiting Akko after picking up a point last week drawing with Hapoel Tel Aviv. Yossi Abuksis saw Ohad Kadosi score on the 57th minute to secure the win and try to get over the red line and out of the relegation zone.