Hapoel Beer Sheva blanked Hapoel Tel Aviv 2-0 as Eliel Peretz scored early in the first half while Igor Zlatanovic did the same in the second half to take the win and keep pace with table leaders Beitar Jerusalem.

Beer Sheva Head Coach Ron Kozuk looked back at the win, “I told the players after the match against Maccabi Tel Aviv in which we lost that I don’t know how to solve this or what to tell them that wouldn’t sound vague or cliché. I spoke about two things we need to take with us: belief and togetherness. It’s okay to criticize, it’s okay to comment, but it’s always meant to make my teammate better. We are a good football team and with that we will need to continue going forward.”

Hapoel Tel Aviv bench boss Elyaniv Barda said, “Not a good game from us. Hapoel Beer Sheva deservedly won, they scored with their first shot on target and that helped them out. Many times we couldn’t control the tempo of the game and that allowed Beer Sheva to take over.”

Maccabi Haifa slipped by Hapoel Petach Tikva 2-1 to take the win and the points at the Moshava Stadium. Roee David opened the scoring in the first half to give the hosts a 1-0 lead but Kenny Saief headed home the equalizer in the second half to draw the greens even. Petach Tikva’s Noam Cohen was sent off in the 80th minute for a reckless foul on Cedric Don while a handball in the box gave Dolev Haziza a late penalty which is missed but put home the rebound to hand Haifa the 3-points.

Haifa Head Coach Barak Bachar spoke about his team’s victory, “This season we’ve had many games where we played well and then the match turned on us and we needed to make up excuses as to why. Today we don’t need excuses. The players are in a very difficult situation and in the second half we came out like flying and everyone gave more than 200 percent. Finally, I felt a team fighting for its life and that needs to happen more.”