Maccabi Haifa blanked Maccabi Netanya 2-0 to win their 8th game in a row and to stay atop the table in Israel Premier League action. After a goalless first half, Tjaron Chery took a chance from outside of the box that glanced off of a Netanya player and into the goal for a 1-0 lead in the 54th minute while Dean David doubled the advantage to take the win.

“We took 3 points at a tough pitch against a good team,” Haifa coach Barak Bachar said. “We had a challenging time in the first half that we needed to make it through and even in the second half we had our issues. But we had some luck and we were able to accomplish what we set out to do.”

“We played well but at the end of the day you need to translate that to goals,” Netanya bench boss Ron Kuzuk began. “We couldn’t score and Haifa’s quality decided this match. We did have opportunities but just couldn’t find the back of the goal.”

Bnei Sakhin and Hapoel Tel Aviv played to a 1-1 draw as Ante Puljic gave the hosts a lead but Dan Einbinder scored a late equalizer after the hosts were reduced to ten men to split the points.

“It’s not easy to go to Sakhin and play at Doha Stadium,” Hapoel coach Slobodan Drapic said. “It’s not a simple task to take points here. However, we could have won the game and we coach have lost as the keeper made a pair of great saves. we want to compete in the championship playoffs, that is our goal.”

“We lost two points in this game,” Sakhnin coach Kobi refuel explained. “We scored and had 2-3 chances for sure goals but we didn’t take advantage of them. We had the game in our hands but then we were issued a red card and they pressed and scored. So at that point we just wanted the game to end in a draw.”