Maccabi Haifa dominated Beitar Jerusalem 3-0 as the Greens outplayed the yellow-and-black throughout the 90 minutes to take the victory and knock Barak Itzhaki’s team out of first place as Hapoel Beer Sheva defeated Hapoel Petach Tikva 4-2. Navot Ratner’s header gave Barak Bachar’s side a 1-0 lead in the 15th minute, while former Beitar forward Silva Kani doubled the advantage in the 60th minute. Second half substitute Trivante Stewart added the cherry on top with the final goal as the striker sent a scorcher from inside of the box past Silva to hand the hosts the points and the win.

“We needed to make some changes after our game against Hapoel Tel Aviv,” Maccabi Haifa Head Coach Barak Bachar began. “We were able to do that somewhat in our matches against Petach Tikva and Beer Sheva and then versus Beitar we finally saw everything come together and we were able to take a dominating win. There are a games where we start well but can’t score and then we concede and have issues trying to come back, but here we were able to fend off Beitar and score first which allowed us to control the game.”

Barak Itzhaki spoke about the match that was, “The issue was that we may have controlled the ball and then when we lost the ball Haifa went on the counter and took advantage of that a number of times. This wasn’t a good game from us all in all and the pace wasn’t what I had expected. There was some fatigue but that’s not an excuse as everyone is playing every few days. We have a game in a few days that we need to win and even though in my time as head coach we haven’t beaten them we will have to do that. We have the best players and the best team and we have to prove that in the next game on Tuesday against Hapoel Beer Sheva.”

Yarden Shua reflected on the loss, “We needed to score the chances we had and we’ll have to go into the next game and win that. We did the best we could and we’ll will keep our heads high. The guys understand the importance of the game on Tuesday and we will do the best that we can. Playing every three days is not easy and that takes a toll on any team, but we will have our fans at home against Hapoel Beer Sheva on Tuesday who were amazing in this game.”

Beitar came flying out of the gate and immediately attacked the Haifa goal as Ziv Ben Shimol’s chance was taken care of by Giorgi Yermakov but the greens countered quickly at the other end as Miguel Silva had to come way out of his goal to clear the ball to safety. Yarden Shua and Johnbosco Kalu tried to break through the Haifa defense but the latter’s attempt was scooped up by Yermakov, however, at the other end the greens broke through to take the lead.

Haifa broke down the pitch as Navot Ratner headed home a Cedric Don ball past a helpless Silva as the hosts grabbed a 1-0 advantage in the 15th minute. Yinon Faingezicht and Grigori Morozov picked up yellow cards while an injured Don was substituted off as Silva Kani came on in his stead in the 25th minute. Timoti Muzie waltzed into the box but his attempt was saved while Yarin Levy’s low liner went wide left of the goal as the pace of play began to pick up.

Ben Shimol and Shua worked their way into the box but Kalu’s chance was miraculously saved by an alert Yermakov, Muzie’s shot just skipped past the left post, Shua tried to thread the needle but his through ball was a bit too strong and Enow’s prime attempt was deflected out as Haifa took a 1-0 lead into the break.

Omer Atzily and Yarden Cohen came on for Morozov and Levy to freshen up Barak Itzhaki’s offense while Ali Mohammed entered the match in place of Adam Greenberg for Barak Bachar’s charges as Haifa immediately went on the attack searching to double their advantage. Nana Antwi’s cross found Muzie in the box but his header went off the right post but on the counter Kani took a Jelle Bataille ball and slotted it home to give the greens a 2-0 lead in the 60th minute.

Both sides made more substitutions as Abdoulaye Seck and Trivante Stewart both came on for Haifa while Gonzalez entered the fray as Stewart’s scorcher was saved by Silva. Atzily and Shua tried to get into the box but the Green’s defense continued to stymie the yellow-and-black. Bataille’s screamer was saved while his low loner was also pawed out by an active Silva to keep the score as is.

However, it wouldn’t stay that way for long as Ratner and Stewart worked their magic together with the latter driving home the ball with authority to give the Greens a 3-0 lead in the 89th minute to polish off the game and take the win.

Hapoel Beer Sheva downed Hapoel Petach Tikva 4-2 as Javon East recorded at hat trick to move the southern reds into first place by a pair of points over Beitar Jerusalem. Beer Sheva grabbed an early as Kings Kangwa found Roie Levy with a terrific through ball as the latter beat Omer Katz for a 1-0 lead while Javon East doubled the southern reds advantage by polishing off a nice team play by Kangwa and Matan Baltaxa.

East added his second of the game in first half injury time thanks to a Muhammad Abu Romi cross to send Ron Kozuk’s team into the break with a 3-0 lead. Yonatan Cohen pulled a goal back from the penalty spot in the 55th minute and Shavit Mazal cut the lead to 3-2 in the 85th minute, but East completed his hat trick in second half injury time to close out the win that would bump Beer Sheva back into the top spot.

Beer Sheva bench boss Ron Kozuk looked back at the win, “Moving into first place? Now we need to make sure we don’t lose it. I want to see us go as far as possible all the way to the end. I trust my squad 100% and I’ve said it a million times and I’m not just saying it for the sake of saying it, I say it because I truly trust them. I think they played maybe one of our best first halves of the season, especially with all six changes to the lineup from the previous match. I trust them, I trust them 100%. I know this squad can take us to a championship. We just need to be there in certain moments when we start getting scared for no reason, but I really, really, really trust my squad.”

Petach Tikva assistant coach Yuval Shpungin talked about the loss, “Wow, we didn’t show up, we didn’t perform in the first half, we were even disgraceful. We prepared well, we know them and everything we talked about, we simply didn’t do. We weren’t there. Not in the battles, not in the attitude, not in the energy, not in the pressing, nothing, nothing. Honestly, it was embarrassing. I apologize to the fans and everyone connected to Hapoel Petah Tikva for that half. They were absolutely right to boo us.”