Hapoel Tel Aviv overwhelmed Hapoel Petach Tikva 4-0 as the reds scored a pair of goals in each half to secure the 3-points and the win. Loizos Loizou put home a smart pass by Stav Turiel in the 13th minute while Andrian Kraev stole the ball in the midfield played a give and go with Daniel Dappa and gave the hosts a 2-0 lead that they would take into the break. Turiel easily made it 3-0 with a wide open opportunity in the area while Orel Degani’s own goal salted away the win for Hapoel Tel Aviv.

Hapoel Tel Aviv Head Coach Elyaniv Barda commented on his team’s performance, “We knew this match would wrap up the first round and we wanted to finish the round properly, especially in a home match. I’m happy we knew how to score a bunch of goals, which we struggled to do in the previous match. It’s been a very intense week with three games and it was a heavy load on the players.”

Hapoel Petach Tikva Head Coach Omer Peretz spoke about the match, “The game developed very easily for Hapoel Tel Aviv, at least in terms of scoring goals and it looked like we were just spinning our wheels on the pitch. We had about 15 minutes in the second half where we pushed the gas a bit and reached two or three chances but that was it.”

Maccabi Haifa slipped by Kiryat Shemona 1-0 as Kenny Saeif scored deep into second half injury time to help the Greens to the 3-points and their second win in a row. Following close to 97 minutes of goalless action, Silva Kani took a ball deep into the box and sent an oncoming Saeif a short pass that he slotted home for Haifa to snatch the points just ahead of the final whistle.

Maccabi Haifa Head Coach Barak Bachar spoke about the last second victory, “Finally we scored in the last attack instead of conceding. It was not an easy match; I felt we were in it the whole time. We weren’t sharp enough throughout the majority of the game unfortunately and that’s a shame. We also could have conceded, it was a match that could have gone either way. Our attitude is good and that’s the foundation. When that’s the case, things come together and we need to keep going with it.”

Kiryat Shemona bench boss Shai Barda said, “These are exactly the moments when you ask yourself, ‘What else can we do?’ But at the end of the day, this is probably what had to happen and we need to deal with it, as hard as it is to say in a situation like this. To come and press Maccabi Haifa, a team with ten times our budget, not only did we not fall short against them, we also reached clear chances. But it doesn’t matter; we lost. Still, I take positives from it and we need to know how to lift the players up.”