Maccabi Haifa dominated Maccabi Tel Aviv to take the Israeli Classico 2-0 to the delight of the fans at Sammy Ofer Stadium. The Greens went to work early as Lorenco Simic pounded home a poor clearance by yellow-and-blue keeper Roie Mishpati to give the hosts a quick 1-0 lead in the 3rd minute. Messay Dego’s squad doubled the advantage less than twenty minutes later when Gadi Kinda stole the ball from Dor Peretz in the box, sent it to Dean David who easily slotted it by Mishpati for a 2-0 advantage that they would holds onto for the balance of the game to take the victory.

“We’re very happy,” Dego said after the game. “Every game that we have played Maccabi Tel Aviv it’s been totally different and in this one we had to play very tactically because we knew how strong they are and that we recently lost to them in the Toto Cup. But we showed that for good or for bad it’s all up to us, Maccabi Haifa.”

“If you look at the chances that we had, we should have scored in every game,” Maccabi coach Robbie Keane said. “We had very good opportunities that we needed to finish or least make the keeper work. When you make a mistake against a good team you are going to be punished and that was the case.”