Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Beer Sheva played to an entertaining 1-1 draw in the southern capital to split the points. The Greens increased their lead atop the table to 2-points as they blew a chance to open up a two game advantage over Maccabi Tel Aviv whom they still need to play head to head for what may be for the championship in a couple of weeks.

Sagiv Yehezkel opened the scoring in the 24th minute with a gorgeous header but second half substitute Tjaron Chery found the equalizer as he slotted home a perfect free kick. Barak Bachar’s squad had a chance to win the game on a couple of occasions but keeper Ohad Levita was up to the task while Miguel Vitor miraculously cleared a ball off the line to keep the result intact.

Kiryat Shemona stunned Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-0 in a game that saw the yellow-and-blue reduced to ten men. After a quiet opening half hour, Maccabi central defender Eitan Tibi was issued his second yellow card reducing Patrick van Leeuwen’s team to ten men. Roie Kehat took immediate advantage of the situation and headed home the opening goal deep into first half stoppage time to give the hosts a 1-0 lead which was doubled by Muhamed Shaker in the 92nd minute to secure the win and the points.

Maccabi Netanya downed Hapoel Kfar Saba 1-0 to officially relegate the Sharon Greens to the second division. Kevaughn Frater scored the lone goal of the match deep into first half injury time after taking a prefect pass from Gaby Kanichowsky and sending it behind a helpless Matan Zalmanovitch to seal Ravid Gezel’s club’s fate.

Hapoel Hadera outlasted Bnei Yehuda 3-2 as three goals were scored in the final few minutes of the game including a 93rd minute own goal to hand Hadera the victory and send Bnei Yehuda that much closer to relegation. Shoval Gozlan who was celebrating his 27th birthday gave Menachem Koretzky’s squad a 1-0 lead at the break but Fatos Beciraj found the equalizer midway in the second half. Gustavo Marmentini found the back if the goal to put Hadera back in front, but once again Beciraj evened the score as the game hit injury time. Just as it looked as if the sides would split the points, an errant clearing attempt by Bnei Yehuda’s Amir Rustum ended up in his own goal handing Hadera the victory.

Hapoel Haifa slipped by Bnei Sakhnin 1-0 on a 40th minute penalty by Gal Arel as the Carmel Reds took the points.

Hapoel Tel Aviv hosted Beitar Jerusalem to a listless 0-0 draw as there was more action between the two camps of fans than on the field of play.

Maccabi Petah Tikva and Ashdod’s played to a goalless draw at the port city as the two sides split the points.