At Bloomfield Stadium, Hapoel Haifa slipped by Hapoel Tel Aviv 1-0 as Tomer Yosefi scored the lone goal of the contest in the 27th minute to take the win and the 3-points for the Carmel Reds.

“Hapoel Tel Aviv is a talented team and a very dangerous one,” Haifa coach Roni Levy began. “For our first game after returning to play I am very happy. There have been some very difficult days and God should watch over all of our soldiers who are in Gaza. I have to give credit to the guys as they gave it their all and I am content with how they performed.”

“We tried to control the ball as much as we could and create as many chances as possible,” Hapoel Tel Aviv’s new coach Borja Lema who took over from Michael Valkanis said following the game. “We couldn’t find the goal and we will continue to work and improve. Wd played well and now we have to look ahead.”

Elsewhere, Hapoel Hadera blanked Maccabi Petach Tikva 3-0 thanks to Elad Madmon’s hat-trick as the club dedicated the win to their captain Menashe Zalka who is currently serving in IDF.

“The owner of the team asked he a few weeks ago as to how much Elad Madmon is worth to us,” Hadera coach Niso Avitan said about the man of the match. “I told him that if someone offered a million Euros he should take it, but now I would say the deal would be off. He’s very talented and I hope he will stay grounded and modest as his career continues on.”

“I didn’t expect this,” Petach Tikva coach Benny Lam said. “Due to what has been going on in the country I guess that anything is possible. It just really surprised me and maybe I made a mistake with the lineup I used. It’s too bad, but I have to keep things calm and lift the guys’s spirits.

Bnei Sakhnin and Maccabi Netanya played to a 1-1 draw to split the points up in the Galilee. Eitan Azoulay opened the scoring when he latched onto a Guy Mizrachi ball to give Netanya a 1-0 lead in the 20th minute, but Boris Enow was sent off at the start of the second half leaving the diamond city side with only ten players as they looked to hold onto the lead. However, that wouldn’t be the case as Yoel Abuhatzeira found the equalizer in teh 84th minute to earn a point.

“For the entire stretch of the game we just weren’t good enough,” Netanya coach Ron Kozuk said. “The red card changed the complexion of the game. We knew it would be tough and that we would have to play right up until the end – we needed to keep the score as is and we didn’t do that.”

“We played decently,” Sakhnin coach Slobodan Drapic began. “We didn’t know exactly how we would look playing after not having had a game in two months. We didn’t have enough confidence in order to win but we played against a good team that had a full complement of foreign players at their disposal while we just had one.”

At the Moshava Stadium, Hapoel Petach Tikva downed Beitar Jerusalem 1-0 as Fortune Bassey found the lone marker of the match in the 29th minute to take the 3-points. It looked as if Fred Friday had evened up the game in the 80th minute but his goal was judged to be offside by the VAR (Virtual Referee Assistant) as the hosts took the win.

“We had plenty of chances in this game in the first half and then in the second,” Petach Tikva coach Ofer Tesselpepe said. “We were able to take three very important points. in this game,. The guys are working very hard and they come into every practice with the ultimate commitment and we can see that on the pitch as they play the exact same way.”

“Everything went against our team,” Beitar head coach Yossi Abuksis said. “We had some great chances in the second half but every single call seems to go against us and it’s a shame that this is the case. The final 20 minutes we had some very good chances but the ball didn’t go into the goal.”

Maccabi Bnei Reineh and Ashdod played to a goalless draw as each team took a point for their efforts.