Maccabi Haifa defeated Ashdod 2-1 as Omer Atzily’s 89th minute penalty sealed the deal and handed the Greens the 3-points, the win which will give Barak Bachar’s team the chance to clinch the league title next matchday. After a goalless first half, substitute Dean David who had entered the game just two minutes earlier scored off a Mavis Tchibota ball to give Haifa a 1-0 lead in the 78th minute. But five minutes later Roi Levy found Adir Levy in the box as the latter scored from in close to draw the hosts even. However, a handball in the area late in the game allowed Atzily to play hero once again and give the visitors the victory.

“We recorded an important win and took a big step towards this historical season,” Bahar explained. “There will be plenty of time to sum up the campaign and I have to give credit to the guys who took yet another step to move closer to our goal.”

“We followed our game plan perfectly,” Ashdod coach Ran Ben Shimon said. “We needed to be a bit more precise on our breaks. Maccabi Haifa’s goals came from counter attacks and we were missing some quality to keep moving forward.”

Beitar Jerusalem got by Hapoel Hadera 2-1 to take the win and the 3-points. Fred Friday opened the scoring in the 12th minute to give Yossi Abuksis’s a quick lead but Sami Bourard came right back less than 10 minutes later to draw Menachem Koretzky’s team even at 1-1. However, just ahead of the break, Avishay Cohen sent a 25 meter scorcher into the left corner of the Hadera goal as Beitar held on to take the win.

“We had some great chances and the difference was all of the misses,” Abuksis said. “We had 6.5 chances in the second half and the missed opportunities caused us to worry about giving up a tying goal. I was sure that we would concede because whoever doesn’t score usually gives up a goal but we ended up taking the win.”