Hapoel Haifa blasted Hapoel Beer Sheva 4-0 as Liran Rotman scored a brace in a game that saw the southern reds play primarily their substitutes with the Champions League playoff round coming up this week. Former Beer Sheva midfielder Shay Elias opened the scoring in the 29th minute while Rotman found the back of the goal less than five minutes later for his first of the match. Alon Turgeman then slotted home the third goal for the Carmel Reds while Rotman added his second of the game to secure 5th place.

The winning coach, Haim Silvas was pleased with his team’s performance but used the opportunity to criticize the postponement of his team’s opening league match, “To beat a team like Beer Sheva 4-0, even if it is essentially a kind of friendly, is excellent. We looked good, improved and could have scored even more. It was a good dress rehearsal for us, but unfortunately, our first game was postponed.”

“It’s very frustrating. I understand that it’s important to help and postpone matches for teams representing us in Europe, they are the pride of us all and their success is important. But on the other hand, our match was pushed into the schedule between Hapoel Tel Aviv and Maccabi Netanya in the opening week of the league and all of this was done without consulting us at all.”

At the end of the match, Ran Kozuk didn’t hide his anger at what he saw from his players, “I think the way we performed today was simply disgraceful. You won’t hear any excuses from me. It doesn’t matter what lineup we put out; Hapoel Beer Sheva must always look like Hapoel Beer Sheva. Our performance was embarrassing and I apologize to the fans who came here. No one is going to get me to say, ‘It’s only a game for fifth or sixth place in the Toto Cup.’”

The coach also addressed the crucial upcoming clash against Sabah in the Champions League qualifiers, “This is Hapoel Beer Sheva’s most important game and that’s what we’re focused on right now. It’s an opportunity, even if it won’t be easy against a truly excellent team. Hapoel Beer Sheva has been in this position twice before and failed to get through it and God willing, this time it will end differently.”

Maccabi Petach Tikva blanked Ironi Tiberias 3-0 thanks to a trio of second half goals as Ziv Arie’s team finished in 11th place and the Kineret club ended up in 12th spot. After a goalless first half, Liran Hazan broke the ice in the 48th minute while Ido Cohen and Jose Cortes both scored as well to polish off the win.

The winning coach, Ziv Arie, summed up his team’s performance, “The first half was our worst period so far. We gave the ball away and were too soft. The start of the second half was better. It’s always good to win. We made a few tactical adjustments and many adjustments in our approach. I prefer playing forward rather than sideways.”

Moti Krispil, Tiberias’ interim coach, said, “It’s a tough feeling. The players came out for the second half less sharp and we conceded easy goals. We need to work on that. Sitting around and complaining about the squad won’t do me any good. We’ll try to strengthen the squad and be ready for the league.”

Bnei Sakhnin slipped by Hapoel Petach Tikva 1-0 as Mathew Cudjoe scored the lone goal of the match in the second half to help Yossi Abuksis’s squad finish the preseason competition in 13th place while Omer Peretz’s team ended in 14th and last place.