In the capital city, Maccabi Haifa scored three unanswered second half goals against Beitar Jerusalem to take a 4-1 win at Teddy Stadium. Frantzdy Pierrot opened the scoring when he latched onto a Neta Lavi ball off a counter to give the Greens the lead in the 28th minute but just ahead of the break the hosts evened the score up at 1-1 when Ion Nicolaescu nodded home a Yarden Shua cross.

While Jerusalem may have had the momentum in the first half, it was all Barak Bachar’s squad in the second as substitute Omer Atzily was pulled down in the box and then scored the subsequent penalty to take a 2-1 lead. Atzily continued to influence the game as two of his corner kicks led to an Abdoulaye Seck header in the 79th minute and a Rami Gershon marker to sew up the big win.

“It would have been better had we went into the half up 1-0 and not giving up a goal at the end of they half, but no mater our substitutes did the job,” Haifa coach Barak Bachar said. “I am happy that the players who had a chance in this game to play helped us win this game. We were ahead 1-0 but could have been up by more.”

“We played well for a half and an additional ten minutes but then we began making mistakes that lead to goals,” Beiter coach Yossi Abuksis said. “When their quality players came off the bench and into the game they were fresh and we were tired. The penalty goal really took the air out of out sails.”

Hapoel Beer Sheva dominated ten-man Bnei Reineh 3-0 in a lopsided affair up north in the Galilee. Ramzi Safouri scored his first of two goals as he scored from 18 meters out directly into the right corner of the goal for a 1-0 lead in the 30th minute. Before the break Richard Boateng was sent off with a red card leaving Reineh with only ten players and they paid the price for that just two minutes into the second half when Safouri completed his brace for a 2-0 lead. Itay Schecter headed home the third marker in the 72nd minute to polish off the win.

“It was very important that the players came into this game as they have all of the others being ready and focussed just as we were for some of the higher profile games that we were recently in,” Beer Sheva head coach Elyaniv Barda said.

“I am very proud of the guys as we all saw that we played against a team that has been very good for quite some time,” Reineh coach Sharon Mimer began. “I told the fourth referee that every small call is going against us and he told me that a number of calls in our favor was not called as well. We worked hard but when the referees help out, it becomes too difficult for us to win.”