Hapoel Beer Sheva pounded Beitar Jerusalem 4-1 in the southern capital to take the points and the victory. Kings Kangwa scored a screamer just 4 minutes into the game from 25 meters out to set the tone for the hosts in the much anticipated matchup. Dan Biton doubled the lead less than five minutes later with a liner of a shot that cleanly beat Beitar keeper for a quick 2-0 advantage. 

Helder Lopes’s 13th minute penalty was saved by Miguel Silva but Yoni Stoyanov pounded home the rebound for a 3-0 lead. Biton added his second goal of the game in the 48th minute while Mayron George pulled a marker back late in the game to break up Niv Eliasi’s cleansheet. 

“This was a great game for us,” Beer Sheva head coach Ron Kozuk began. “If someone had told me that we would have been winning by the score of 3-0 after just 12 minutes I would have thought they were crazy. Our style of play is to press high with a lot of intensity and we went with thee central defenders that gave us balance in the back and I’m happy that this worked. I’m very satisfied with how things worked out.”

“A lot of things didn’t work, especially at the beginning of the game,” Beitar head coach Barak Itzhaki said. “When you start to get dizzy in Turner Stadium, it’s a problem. We tried to maintain the way we play but it didn’t go well today, ultimately we will learn from moments like this. Our game plan just didn’t work as I tried to press high with three quick players and I wanted to move the ball less and play transition. I was wrong.”

Maccabi Netanya mounted a late game comeback to down Ironi Tiberias 3-2 as Yossi Abuksis’s team snatched the points. Franco Mazurek gave Tiberias a 1-0 lead vis a free kick in the 20th minute while 10 minutes later Freddy Vargas did the same for Netanya to draw even at 1-1. But a Jordan Botaka penalty just before the halftime break gave an inspired Tiberias a 2-1 advantage. Oz Bilu was able to find the equalizer for the visitors in the 80th minute while 5 minutes later Vargas headed home the winner as the diamond city squads took the win the points.

“Football is a sport that you can prepare for diligently but then concede goals with a pair of mistakes,” Netanya head coach Yossi Abuksis said. “We didn’t deserve to be behind in the first half and in the second half we scored two goals. I think we were in control and there were some good things to take from here. We struggled defensively and we have some problems that we need to fix up.”

“The game was in our hands ad then in the last few minutes we had a major letdown,” Tiberias bench boss Eliran Hodeida began. “We conceded goals within a few minutes of each other, it’s painful and disappointing, but we’ll lift ourselves up and get ready for the next game. If we had maintained concentration at the back, we wouldn’t have conceded the goals.”

Hapoel Hadera eased past Maccabi Bnei Reineh 2-1 as Dan Einbinder scored the winning goal to break a 1-1 tie as the hosts took teh 3-points and the win. Hadera grabbed a early lead when Menashe Zalka’s corner found Mamadou Mbodj in the box as the central defender head home the ball for a 1-0 advantage. Guy Hadida drew Reineh even in the 59th minute but Einbinder pounded home the deciding goal a minute later to take the points.

“This was a tough game,” winning coach Asaf Nimni said. “We took an very important step here with this win for the rest of the season. The players wanted this a lot and were very disciplined as they brought their hard work to fruition.”

“This was not a good game by us as we didn’t start well,” Reineh bench boss Sharon Mimer said. The more determined team rightly won and while we tried to come up with solutions, it wasn’t good enough. We’re not slowing down for a moment and we will learn from this. We didn’t have the right energy.”