Hapoel Beer Sheva blanked Maccabi Bnei Reineh 1-0 as Helder Lopes headed home an Or Blorian ball for teh lone goal of the match that gave the southern reds the 3-points and the win on a day that celebrated the return of hostage Eitan Horn.

Beer Sheva bench boss Ran Kozuk spoke about the win, “I really appreciate this victory. We went through a difficult week and it was very important for us to win. It wasn’t one of our best games, although with a little more confidence we could have scored a second and third goal. We’re humble enough to just embrace this win. We don’t like to lose and I was hard on the players after the Kiryat Shmona game and rightly so but that’s because I know what they’re capable of and they have a lot of responsibility. I wasn’t disappointed with the energy last week; we just didn’t play our kind of football, with too many long balls and that’s something we don’t do.”

Reineh Head Coach Adham Hadiya said, “I’m disappointed with the result. I said before the game that despite the absences, the eleven starters have to get the job done. In the second half we could have made it 1–1. I still don’t understand how the referee disallowed our goal — if he whistles for that, then he also had to call a penalty on De Turbo. They took a goal away from us; I don’t know how he ruled it out.”

Eitan Horn also spoke about his return to Turner Stadium, “I am speechless, this is the best welcome I could have asked for. It’s unbelievable. I’ve been waiting to be back at Turner (Stadium), with everyone together, cheering it was emotional, there’s nothing like it. Football was always on my mind and it was one of the things that kept me going in captivity. Every day I thought about Hapoel Beer Sheva, whether we won the championship or qualified for Europe.”