Hapoel Raanana 0-2 Maccabi Tel Aviv

Maccabi defeated Raanana at their home away from home, the Netanya Stadium on goals by Rada Prica & Eran Zahavi. Raanana, the home side on this night could not muster much of an offense after last week’s victory over Ashdod. Maccabi will now be able to focus solely on the league as they were eliminated from European play last week by Basel in the round of 32 Europa League and were pusted a few weeks ago from the State Cup tournament.

Hapoel Haifa 2-0 Bnei Sakhnin

Haifa defeated a struggling Bnei Sakhnin club at home on a brace by unheralded Kiwan Hiasham scoring his 1st two goals of the season. This was Hapoel Haifa’s first win since late December when they defeated Hapoel Raanana and Sakhnin has now lost 3 games in a row.

Hapoel Akko 1-1 Maccabi Haifa

Akko received a terrific goal from Albanian recruit Hamdi Salihi in the first half, but couldn’t hold onto the lead as Ruben Rayos scored the equalizer in the 2nd frame. Salahi signed with Akko during the winter transfer period and has been an absolute delight of a player as he placed a beauty of goal to give Yuval Naim’s charges a 1-0 lead. However, a fantastic lead pass by Hungarian Tamas Priskin to Ruben Rayos gave the Greens a split of the points for Arik Benado’s club.

Maccabi Petach Tikva 1-3 Hapoel Beer Sheva

Visiting Beer Sheva walked out of the HaMoshava stadium with another 3-points to keep the pressure on table leader Maccabi Tel Aviv. The first half saw assist king Maor Bozaglo turn a terrific individual effort into a goal as he laid the ball in perfectly for Dutchman Glynor Plet to make it 1-0. In the 2nd half Petach Tikva went a man down as Tamla Ladji Mekeme picked up a 2nd yellow card, but Pedro Galvan’s fabulous free kick goal tied up the game 1-1. Bozaglo then picked up his 14th helper of the year as William Suarez made it 2-1 and Elyaniv Barda picked up a penalty kick goal to finish off the match for Beer Sheva 3-1.

Beitar Jerusalem 2-0 Ashdod

Beitar Jerusalem came out flying tonight with a quick goal in the 3rd minute on a header by Pablo Brandan. It was all Beitar the rest of the way as Brandan picked up an assist on Niso Capiloto’s headed goal off a free kick and cruised to the easy victory. Israel national team keeper Ariel Harush barely handled the ball as Ashdod could not muster up any offensive attack against a stifling Beitar defense. Aleksander Davidov picked up a red card at the end of the game after a small scuffle with Aviram Bruchian.

Hapoel Tel Aviv 1-1 Kiryat Shemona

Hapoel Tel Aviv picked up a point in the final few minutes of the match as again the Reds did not perform well under pressure. Kiryat Shemona looked very comfortable as they visited Bloomfield and even though a red card to Hen Dilmoni and a late substitute to bring in an ill Ahmed Abed resulted in a goal in the 71st minute for the visitors. But Ran Ben Shimon’s luck changed when Peter Orlandic scored in the 85th minute to pick up only Hapoel’s 2nd point out of the last 12.

Bnei Yehuda 0-1 Ramat HaSharon

Could it get any worse for Bnei Yehuda? Unbelievably it did! In a battle of the bottom of the table clubs, Ramat HaSharon was able to get the win as Yosef Abu Laben scored in the 94th minute to collect all three points at Bloomfield stadium.