Hapoel slipped by Maccabi 3-2 in the Toto Cup Haifa Derby as the Carmel Reds grabbed a 3-0 lead and had to hang on as the Greens scored a pair late and pressed hard for a winner in second half injury time. Yaad Gonen broke the ice in the 30th minute to give Haim Silvas’s team the lead which was quickly doubled by an own goal.

Alon Turgeman put home a second half free kick, but Eyad Khalaili scored a header and Eitan Azulay launched a scorcher into the back of the visitor’s goal. However, that’s as close as Barak Bachar’s team would get as Hapoel took the hard fought win.

Haim Silvas spoke about Yaad Gonen who scored the game’s first goal, “Yaad has played so much since I arrived and rarely played. But he was given a chance and he grabbed it with both hands. It’s up to him if he’s going to be an influential player for the team. The bottom line is, he took his chance and made the most of it.”

Barak Bachar reflected on the game, “We didn’t play well in the first half and the guys who played didn’t do a great job. But in the second half we made some changes and did a much better job especially the final thirty minutes. Our offense was stuck in the first half and we saw some things that we will need to improve and that’s what we will do over the next month or so. We know that this is just the Toto Cup and that we will look a lot better in time, it’s upsetting we didn’t win but we also have to put things into perspective.”

Yaad Gonen spoke about his goal and the club’s victory, “My celebration came about because I had finally scored as a senior player and it came in a derby, I had waited for this goal for such a long time. As a team we really came into the game ready to go, from a tactical side we all knew what to do and we were also there mentally to make sure we closed our the win.”

Both teams produced little offense over the opening thirty minute but at the stroke of the half hour mark, Yaad Gonen scored a tremendous strike from just outside of the box that beat Greens keeper Omri Glazer to give the Carmel reds a 1-0 lead. Just three minutes later Hapoel Haifa doubled their advantage when Naor Sabag and Ariel Mendy applied pressure and the BOL went off of Noam Steifman and behind Glazer for a 2-0 lead at the break. Things went from bad to worse for Barak Bachar’s squad when Alon Turgeman slammed home a gorgeous free kick to give Haim Silvas’s team a 3-0 lead in the 58th minute.

However, after a number of substitutions, a refreshed Maccabi Haifa pulled one back as Eyad Khalaili headed home the marker and completed a solid team effort as Bruninho got the ball to Kenji Gorre who in turn sent a magnificent cross to the aforementioned Khalaili who made it 3-1 in the 75th minute. A red hot Green team then cut the Reds advantage down to just a lone goal less than five minutes later when Eitan Azulay unleashed a screamer from the top of the box that cleanly beat Yoav Gerafi.

Maccabi came close to drawing even in the 88th minute when Cedric Don headed the ball to Bruninho who in turn nodded the ball towards the goal but an alert Gerafi was just able to paw the ball over the bar to safety as the reds wrapped up the victory.