Maccabi Haifa pounded Ashdod 4-0 as four different goal scorers helped seal the club’s most dominant league win of the season. Silva Kangani nodded in Kenji Gorre’s smart shot that the keeper couldn’t snatch to give the Greens the lead while Peter Agba put home a Gorre assist form the top of the box to head into the break with a 2-0 advantage. Gorre then scored a goal of his own which was followed up by Dolev Haziza’s header off a Pierre Cornud ball to wrap up the victory.

Barak Bachar summarized the win, “The match against Beitar was painful, but we took the lessons from it and we didn’t want it to stop us. There’s a tendency to underestimate what we did in the cup and it was important to win. I enjoyed every moment with the team here in Ashdod. It took us, as a staff, time to learn the team. I’m happy that despite many absences, we focused on football and I saw the players do it in an amazing way.”

Haim Silvas reflected on the heavy defeat, “I don’t have much to say other than we’re disappointed. We’ve fallen into difficult days and we’re fighting with all our strength. A combination of circumstances, one goal or two takes the wind out of our sails. Despite Maccabi Haifa’s emphatic win, in the opening moments of the match we were there.”

Hapoel Beer Sheva eased past Hapoel Jerusalem 4-1 as the southern reds needed a trio of second half goals to take the win and the 3-points. Awaka Eshata headed home Ohad Almagor’s free kick to give the capital city side an early 1-0 lead but Igor Zlatanovic found the equalizer in the 28th minutes as the two squads went into halftime knotted up at 1-1. Amir Ganach gave the hosts the lead when he pounded home a rebound while Zahi Ahmed did the same as Shay Elias nodded in the final goal of the match to wrap up the victory.

Hapoel Beer Sheva Head Coach Ron Kozuk looked back at the win, “This match started the way the previous league match ended, but I’m extremely proud of my players. Sometimes, when the period is difficult, you have to carve out points. They started from the lowest possible place and picked themselves up and they should be proud of that.”

Ziv Arie, coach of the losing team said, “We started well and scored a goal. In the final third we were poor and soft and we knew Beer Sheva would come to cause chaos. Most importantly, it’s about playing with the ball, winning at Turner is only possible with the ball. When you lose the ball, every transition is deadly.”

Hapoel Petach Tikva blanked Maccabi Netanya 2-0 to take the surprise win and collect the 3-points. James Adeniyi scored off a free kick that Netanya keeper Omer Niron couldn’t hold onto while Cle finished off a nice team attack in the second half to close out the victory.

Hapoel Petach Tikva Head Coach Omer Peretz looked back at the win, “It’s an important victory, both to get closer to the top but certainly to move away from the bottom. We want to be more relaxed, that was the goal and I’m happy we achieved it in a tough stadium, against a strong team.“

Maccabi Netanya bench boss Yossi Abukasis spoke about the loss, “There are games where nothing works, starting from the first minutes when you concede a goal like that, which forces you to chase the game. Even in a match like this we had chances to get back into it. It’s not what we deserved, but we needed to take our chances.”