Hapoel Beer Sheva blanked Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-0 to knock the yellow-and-blue out of first place and close to within just 2-points of second place. Alexandru Paun beat Maccabi keeper Daniel Peretz from in close in the 27th minute to take a 1-0 lead. Just ahead of the break, Maccabi midfielder Daniel Glazer was issued a red card after receiving a pair of yellow cards for reckless tackles which reduced the visitors to 10-men for the balance of the contest. Vladen Ivic substituted off both Eran Zahavi and Oscar Glouch at halftime and then gave up an insurance marker by Rotem Hatuel off a free kick to sew up the victory for the southerners.

“We are always looking at ourselves and trying to improve our play each and every game,’ Beer Sheva coach Elyaniv Barda said. “We wanted to keep a clean sheet which we were able to do. This was our 23rd game of the season across all competitions with a very packed schedule including flights, so it was thanks to our fans who were able to push us on.”

“This was one of the weakest games of the season,” a disappointed Maccabi coach Vladen Ivic said. “We could have been up 2-0 in the first then minutes of the game but we didn’t score. When we lost a player a lot of things changed and we have to think about our mistakes and understand how to fix it.”