Hapoel Haifa got by Beitar Jerusalem 1-0 as Theim Diarra scored in the 77th minute after the Carmel reds had been reduced to ten men less than ten minutes earlier due to Anis Ayash’s red card.

“This is a type of game that can go both ways,” Haifa coach Roni Levy said. “Both teams came here to win. We had a lot of opportunities and Beitar was also very dangerous. It was an exciting and lively game with plenty of action.”

“We were dragged into playing a game that wasn’t at our strengths until the last few minutes,” Beitar bench boss Barak Itzhaki said. “Our first half wasn’t good and they created an advantage that we couldn’t deal with. We need to control the game and we needed to do a lot more. We looked better in the second half, but at the end of the day when you concede a goal and play for 30 minutes against only 10 players you have to win games like that.”

Ashdod defeated Ironi Tiberias 2-1 to capture the points and take the win. Adir Levi scored in the first half and Eugene Ansah found the back of the goal in the second to give the port city side a 2-0 lead before Stanislav Bilenkyi broke up the clean sheet in the 90th minute, however, it was too little too late for the hosts as Ashdod snatched the 3-points.

“If this had been a game during the regular season, it could have ended 4-0 or 5-0 for us,” Ashdod Head Coach Haim Silvas said. “But this is a relegation playoff game with all the pressure and when we played more defensively Tiberias scored and got back into the game. But we ended up beating them by the skin of our teeth.”

“We came into the playoffs in good shape,” Tiberias Head Coach Eliran Hodeida began. “But in the game against Hadera we ended up drawing, against Sakhnin they whistled a penalty against us in extra time and there’s no doubt that right now that the rate of our being able to accumulate points is not good and we’ll have to improve.”